The village gods of South India

The George A. Wnrburton
/Memorial Collection

Presented to

The Canadian Sctwx)! of MLSSJOILS
by t\. /\. Hvde, Lsci., Wichita, Kansas.

FROM-THE- LIBRARY OF
TRINITYCOLLEGETORONTO

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF INDIA

EDITED BY

J. N. FARQUHAR, M.A., D.Litt.,

LITERARY SECRETARY, NATIONAL COUNCIL, YOUNG MEN'S
CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS, INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON ;

AND

NICOL MACNICOL, M.A., D.Litt.

ALREADY PUBLISHED

THE AHMADIYA MOVEMENT. By H. A. WALTER, M.A.
THE CHAMARS. By G. W. BRIGGS, M.Sc., Cawnpore.

UNDER PREPARATION

THE HINDU RELIGIOUS YEAR. By M.M. UNDERBILL, B.A.,
B.Litt., Nasik.

THE VAISHNAVISM OF PANDHARPUR. By NICOL MAC
NICOL, M.A., D.Litt., Poona.

THE CHAITANYAS. By M. T. KENNEDY, M.A., Calcutta.
THE SRl-VAISHNAVAS. By E. C. WORMAN, M.A., Madras.
THE RAMANANDIS. By C. T. GROVES, M.A., Fyzabad.

KABlR AND HIS FOLLOWERS. By F. E. KEAY, M.A.,

Jubbulpore.
"^

THE DADUPANTHlS. By W. G. ORR, M.A., B.D., Jaipur.

THE VlRA SAIVAS. By W. E. TOMLINSON, Mangalore,

and W. PERSTON, Tumkur.
^w

"THE TAMIL SAIVA SIDDHANTA. By GORDON MATTHEWS,
M.A., B.D., Madras, and J. S. MASILAMANI, B.D., Pasumalai.

THE BRAHMA MOVEMENT. By MANILAL C. PAREKH, B.A..

Rajkot, Kathiawar.

THE RAMAKRISHNA MOVEMENT. By J. N. C. GANGULY,
B.A., Calcutta.

THE KHOJAS. By W. M. HUME, B.A., Lahore.

THE MALAS AND MADIGAS. By the BISHOP OF DORNAKAL,
P. B. EMMET, B.A., Kurnool, and S. NICHOLSON, Cuddapah.

THE DHEDS. By MRS. SINCLAIR STEVENSON, M.A., Sc.D.,
Rajkot, Kathiawar.

THE MAHARS. By A. ROBERTSON, M.A., Poona.
THE BHILS. By D. LEWIS, Jhalod, Panch Mahals.

THE CRIMINAL TRIBES. By O. H. B. STARTE. I.C.S.,
Bijapur.

121725

MAY

EDITORIAL PREFACE

THE purpose of this series of small volumes on the
leading forms which religious life has taken in India is
to produce really reliable information for the use of all
who are seeking the welfare of India. Editor and
writers alike desire to work in the spirit of the best
modern science, looking only for the truth. But, while
doing so and seeking to bring to the interpretation of
the systems under review such imagination and sym
pathy as characterize the best study in the domain of
religion to-day, they believe they are able to shed on
their work fresh light drawn from the close religious
intercourse which they have each had with the people
who live by the faith herein described ; and their study
of the relevant literature has in every instance been
largely supplemented by persistent questioning of those
likely to be able to give information. In each case the
religion described is brought into relation with Chris
tianity. It is believed that all readers in India at least
will recognize the value of this practical method of
bringing out the salient features of Indian religious life.

«,)

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF INDIA

<

THE VILLAGE GODS OF
SOUTH INDIA

BY THE
RIGHT REVEREND HENRY WHITEHEAD, D.D.,

BISHOP OF MADRAS

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED

ASSOCIATION PRESS

(Y.M.C.A.)
5, RUSSELL STREET, CALCUTTA

HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON, NEW YORK, TORONTO, MELBOURNE, BOMBAY,

MADRAS AND CALCUTTA

1921

PREFACE

THE material for this account of the village gods of
South India has been gathered almost entirely from my
own observation and inquiry. I have been able to get
little help from books, as this is, I think, the first
attempt at dealing systematically with this aspect of
Indian religion. It does not pretend to be anything
like an exhaustive account of all the various rites and
ceremonies observed in the worship of the village
deities. The variety of ritual and ceremonial in the
different districts of South India is almost endless, and
I have not attempted in this book to give an account
even of all the various ceremonies that have come
within my own knowledge. Perhaps it would be more
correct to call the book "An Introduction to the Study of
the Village Gods of South India." I believe, however,
that all the main types of this particular form of
Hinduism are included in the following pages, and that
enough has been said to enable the reader to get a
fairly complete idea of its general character and to
compare it with similar forms of religion in other parts
of the world.

I have to acknowledge the kindness of the Editor
of The Nineteenth Century and After for allowing me
to reprint in Chapters IV, VI, and VII portions of
articles contributed by me to that Magazine. I owe
the drawings from which illustrations have been made
to Mrs. Whitehead ; while Miss Stephen, the Archdeacon

8 PREFACE

of Madras, and other friends have most kindly supplied
me with the photographs used for that purpose ; and
the Government of Madras has generously allowed me
to use the plates for some of the illustrations which
previously appeared in a bulletin that I wrote some
years ago for the Madras Museum.

A Glossary of Indian Terms and several Indices
have been included in order to facilitate reference to
the large amount of unfamiliar detail which the book
contains.

HENRY MADRAS.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

INTRODUCTION .. .. .. .. 11

I. LEADING FEATURES OF THE RELIGION .. 16

II. NAMES, CHARACTERS, AND FUNCTIONS OF THE

VILLAGE GODS . . . . . . . . 23

III. THE CULT .. .. .. .. .. 35

IV. MODES OF WORSHIP IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY 48
V. MODES OF WORSHIP IN THE CANARESE COUNTRY 71

VI. MODES OF WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL COUNTRY.. 89

VII. FOLKLORE OF THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH

INDIA .. .. .. .. ..112

VIII. PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE WORSHIP OF VILLAGE

GODS .. .. .. .. ..139

IX. SOCIAL, MORAL, AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE OF

THE SYSTEM . . . . . . . . 152

APPENDIX I . . . . . . . . . . 159

APPENDIX II .. . . . . . . . . 161

GLOSSARY OF INDIAN TERMS . . . . . . 165

INDEX OF THE GODS . . . . jr. ' . . 167

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX . . . . . . 169

GENERAL INDEX 170

"•1,

ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE FACING PAGE

/TYPICAL SHRINE OF GRAMA-DEVATA .. ..34

'1 INTERIOR OF S.HRINE WITH STONES AS SYMBOLS 34

(TYPICAL SHRINE OF GRAMA-DEVATA .. ..35

[CLAY HORSES OF IYENAR .. .. ..35

III. KARAGAM .. .. .. .. ..38

I PUJARI WITH ARATI 39

IV.]

I STONE SYMBOL OF POTU-RAZU .. ..39

V. RUDE SHRINE AT FOOT OF TREE .. ..44

(RUDE SHRINE.. .. 45

VI. 1

(MlNACHI AND THE SEVEN SlSTERS, CUDDALORE. . 45

VII. BUFFALO SACRIFICE .. .. .. ... 50

VIII. HEAD OF SACRIFICIAL BUFFALO .. ..51

IX. SHRINE OF POSHAMMA .. .. ..70

X. KUTTANDEVAR .. .. .. ..71

XI. SHRINE OF PLAGUE-AMMA, BANGALORE .. 76

XII. INTERIOR OF SHRINE OF PLAGUE-AMMA . . 77

XIII. IMAGE OF HULIAMMA .. .. .. ..80

XIV. IMAGE OF GODDESS, MYSORE CITY .. ..81
I SHRINE OF POLERAMMA . . 82

xv. >

1 SHRINE AND IMAGES OF BISAL-MARI .. ..82

XVI. IMAGES OF BISAL-MARI .. .. ..83

XVII. SHRINE OF PADUVATTAMMA .. .. ..88

(IMAGE OF GODDESS WITH NAILS DRIVEN INTO

THE BODY .. . . . . .. ..89

BUFFALO SACRIFICED TO MOTOR BICYCLE 89

INTRODUCTION

THE worship of the village gods is the most ancient
form of Indian religion. Before the Aryan invasion,
which probably took place in the second millennium
B.C., the old inhabitants of India, who are sometimes
called Dravidians, were a dark-skinned race, with
religious beliefs and customs that probably did not
greatly differ from those of other primitive races.
They believed the world to be peopled by a multitude
of spirits, good and bad, who were the cause of all
unusual events, and especially of diseases and disasters.
The object of their religion was to propitiate these
innumerable spirits. At the same time, each village
seems to have been under the protection of some one
spirit, who was its guardian deity. Probably these
village deities came into being at the period when the
people began to settle down in agricultural communities.
We may see in them the germs of the national deities
which were so prominent among the Semitic races and
the great empires of Egypt, Nineveh, and Babylon.
Where the family developed into a clan, and the clan
into a tribe, and the tribe into a nation, and the nation
into a conquering empire, the god of the family naturally
developed into an imperial deity. But in ancient India,
before the coming of the Aryans, the population seems
to have been split up into small agricultural and pas
toral communities. There were no nations and no
conquering empires. And it was not till the Aryan
invaders had conquered North India and had settled
down in the country, that there was in India any
growth of philosophic thought about the world as a
whole. The problem of the universe did not interest
the simple Dravidian folk. They only looked for an

12 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

explanation of the facts and troubles of village life.
Their religion, therefore, did not advance beyond a
crude animism and belief in village deities. Later on,
after the Aryans had overrun a large part of India, and
the Brahmans had established their ascendency as a
priestly caste, the old Dravidian cults were influenced
by the superior religion of the Aryans, and strongly
reacted on them in turn.

The earliest Indian philosophical systems arose in
the sixth century B.C., under the stimulus of the desire
to escape from transmigration. Two of these developed
into new religions hostile to Hinduism, namely Jainism
and Buddhism, while others remained in the old faith.
All exercised a profound influence on the thought of
India and also modified religious practice in certain
respects. On the other hand, the crude ideas and
barbarous cults of the omnipresent aboriginal tribes,
constantly pressing upon the life of the Aryans, found
entrance into their religion at many points. Thus the
old polytheistic nature-worship of the Rigveda, with
its animal sacrifices offered in the open air, and its
simple, healthy rules for family and social life, was
gradually transformed into a great mass of warring
sects holding philosophical ideas and subtle theological
systems, and condemning animal sacrifice, yet worship
ping gross idols, and bound by innumerable superstitions.
Caste arose and became hardened into the most rigorous
system of class distinctions that the world has ever
seen, inspired and justified by the doctrine of transmi
gration and karma.

What we now call Hinduism, therefore, is a strange
medley of the most diverse forms of religion, ranging
from the most subtle and abstruse systems of philo
sophy to primitive forms of animism. At the same
time, the primitive forms of Dravidian religion have
been in their turn greatly modified by Brahman influ
ence. For the most part, the same people in town
and village worship the village deities and the Brahman
gods. There are a few aboriginal tribes in some of the
hill tracts who are still unaffected by Brahman ideas or

INTRODUCTION 13

customs, but in the vast majority of the districts the
worship of the village deities and the worship of Siva
and Vishnu go on side by side ; just as in China
Confucianism and Taoism are not rival religions but
complementary creeds.

To the student of comparative religion the study of
the weird rites and ceremonies connected with the
propitiation of the village deities is interesting, because
it reveals many points of contact with primitive forms
of religion in other lands, and also because it enables
the student to see these primitive religious ideas in very
different stages of development. To the Christian the
study has a still greater interest, because, amid all their
repulsive features, these rites contain instinctive ideas
and yearnings which find their satisfaction in the highest
truths of Christianity.

In the second edition I have tried to remedy defects
and omissions that have been kindly pointed out by
reviewers, and some chapters have been rearranged.
It has been difficult, however, to know where to stop
when attempting to supply omissions. The number of
different gods and goddesses worshipped all over South
India is enormous and the variety of local customs
almost infinite. It is inevitable, therefore, that a large
number of deities and customs, which are both interest
ing and important, should be omitted in a small book
that can only aim at being a brief introduction to a vast
subject.

The chapter on the probable origin of the worship
of village gods (Ch. VIII) has naturally provoked the
most criticism. In the former chapters I have stated
what I have heard and seen myself. In this chapter I
rashly entered the field of conjecture and framed a
hypothesis as to what may have happened about 7000
years ago. Naturally I have laid myself open to attack.
But in spite of the criticisms that have been made on
my theory, I do not feel inclined to give it up, though
it must necessarily remain incapable of proof. I am
still of opinion that the totemistic theory of the origin
of the sacrifices to the grama-devatas, or village

14 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

goddesses, as distinct from the offerings made to the
spirits of ancestors or other deities, is on the whole
most in accordance with the facts. Professor Elmore,
in his able and most interesting book, Dravidian Gods
in Modern Hinduism, criticizes the totemistic theory of
the origin of the buffalo- sacrifice, which is the most
important of the sacrifices offered to the grama-devatas,
on three grounds, mainly because the existing stories,
current amongst the people, suggest a historical origin
for the rites. Professor Elmore conjectures from these
stories that the sacrifices symbolize "the dire punish
ment and disgrace of a conquered enemy." The cut
ting off of the head, the putting the foreleg in the mouth,
the smearing of the nose with fat and the putting of a
lighted lamp upon the forehead, are, in this theory,
intended to express " the supreme humiliation of a
feared, despised, and defeated enemy." So the proces
sion of the buffalo with a garland round its neck, through
the village before the sacrifice, is described as "the
remnant of a triumphal procession in which the enemy
was exhibited before the disgraceful death." The
sacrifice, therefore, represents the triumph of the
Aryan invaders over the Dravidian aborigines and their
" mad gods."

I must confess that this explanation seems to me
very far-fetched and improbable, and entirely out of line
with all that we know about the origin and meaning of
sacrifice and ritual among other peoples, and it is open
to the fatal objection that it compels us to assume that
these buffalo-sacrifices originated at a comparatively
late date, long after the Aryan invasion of North India
and subsequent to the advance of the Aryans into
South India, when the struggle with the Dravidians
was over and the triumph of the Aryans assured.
The stories which I have given in Chapter VII, and
those which Professor Elmore gives in his book to
support his theory, obviously belong to the time when
the Pariahs of South India, who were originally a
leading clan among the Dravidians, had been dethroned
from their position and reduced to a state of seivituUe

INTRODUCTION 15

and degradation by Brahman influence. But it seems
to me quite clear that the worship of the grama-
devatas and the buffalo-sacrifice belong to a very
much older period than this, and go back to the
days long before the Aryan invasion, probably to the
time when the Dravidian clans first came to India and
settled down to an agricultural life. If that is true, it
is impossible to interpret the meaning of rites and
ceremonies which originated about 3000 or 4000 B.C.
at the latest, by the light of legends which represent
historical events that took place about three thousand
years later.

Again, in view of the facts that agricultural deities
all over the world have been mainly female, and that
many of the rites and ceremonies connected with the
worship of the grama-devatas are obviously related to
the harvest, I must still maintain my opinion that the
reason why the grama-devatas are female is because
they were originally agricultural deities. Professor
Elmore's view, that the Dravidian deities are female
because the Dravidian women were specially quarrel
some, vindictive and jealous, and that their tempers
and curses made people feel that it was wise to pro
pitiate female spirits, seems to me a very improbable
explanation, even if it were certain that Dravidian
women were as much " adepts in the use of bad langu
ages and vigorous terms of defamation " six thousand
years ago as some of them are to-day.

CHAPTER I

LEADING FEATURES OF THE RELIGION

THE worship of the Village Deity, or grama-dcvata,
as it is called in Sanskrit and in Tamil, forms an
important part of the conglomerate of religious beliefs,
customs, and ceremonies which are generally classed
together under the term Hinduism. In almost every
village and town of South India may be seen a shrine
or symbol of the grama-devata, and in every village
the grama-devata is periodically worshipped and pro
pitiated. As a rule this shrine is far less imposing
than the Brahmanical temples in the neighbourhood ;
very often it is nothing more than a small brick
building three are four feet high, or a small enclosure
with a few rough stones in the centre ; and often
there is no shrine at all ; but still, when calamity
overtakes the village, when pestilence or famine
or cattle disease makes its appearance, it is to the
village deity that the whole body of the villagers
turn for protection. Siva and Vishnu may be more
dignified beings, but the village deity is regarded
as a more present help in trouble, and is more
intimately concerned with the happiness and prosperity
of the villagers.

(a) The origin of this form of Hinduism is lost in
antiquity ; but it is certain that it represents a pre-
Aryan cult of the Dravidian peoples, more or less
modified in various parts of South India by Brah
manical influence ; and some details of the ceremonies
seem to point back to a totemistic stage of religion. The
normal function of the grama-devata is the guardian
ship of the village, but many of them are believed to

LEADING FEATURES OF THE RELIGION 17

have other powers, especially in relation to disease and
calamity.

(t>) The village deities and their worship are widely
different from the popular Hindu deities, Siva and
Vishnu, and the worship that centres in the great Hindu
temples.

1. Siva and Vishnu represent forces of nature :
Siva symbolizes the power of destruction and the idea
of life through death, Vishnu the power of preservation
and the idea of salvation. Both these deities and the
system of religion connected with them are the outcome
of philosophic reflection on the universe as a whole.
But the village deities, on the other hand, have no
relation to the universe. They symbolize only the facts
of village life. They are related, not to great world
forces, but to such simple facts as cholera, small-pox,
and cattle disease.

2. Then, in the second place, village deities, with
very few exceptions, are female. Siva and Vishnu, and
the principal deities of the Hindu pantheon, are male.
Their wives, it is true, play an important part in Hindu
religious life — Kali especially, the "black one," the
wife of Siva, is the presiding deity of Calcutta, and is
one of the chief deities of Bengal — but, speaking
generally, in the Hindu pantheon the male deities are
predominant and the female deities occupy a subordi
nate position. This is characteristic of the genius of
the Aryan religion, but in the old Dravidian cults a
leading feature was the worship of the female principle
in nature. It is possible that this is due to the fact that
the Aryan deities were the gods of a race of warriors,
whereas the Dravidian deities were the goddesses of an
agricultural people. All over the world, the gods of
war are mostly male, while the agricultural deities are,
for the most part, female ; and this naturally arises
from the fact that war is the business of men, whereas,
among primitive peoples, the cultivation of the fields
was largely left to the women, and also from the fact
that the idea of fertility is naturally connected with the
female. All over Southern India, therefore, the

2

18 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

village deities are almost exclusively female. In the
Tamil country, it is true, most of them have male
attendants, who are supposed to guard the shrines and
carry out the commands of the goddesses ; but their
place is distinctly subordinate and almost servile. One
of these male deities, however, lyenar, has an inde
pendent position. He generally has a shrine to himself,
and is regarded as the night-watchman of the village.
The compound of his shrine is generally crowded with
clay figures of horses, great and small, on which he is
supposed to ride round the village during the watches
of the night, to keep off evil spirits. In the Telugu
country, too, there is a being called Potu-Razu, who
figures sometimes as the brother, sometimes as the
husband, of the village goddess, and sometimes as
merely an attendant ; but I have never met him as an
independent deity and have always been told that sacri
fice is never offered to him alone, but only in conjunc
tion with one or more of the goddesses.

3. Then, in the third place, the village deities are
almost universally worshipped with animal sacrifices,
Buffaloes, sheep, goats, pigs, and fowls are freely
offered to them, sometimes in thousands. In the
Tamil country, this custom is curiously modified by
the influence of Brahmanism, which has imbued the
villagers with the idea that the shedding of blood is
low and irreligious, and it is remarkable that no animal
sacrifices are ever offered to lyenar. The male
attendants accept them eagerly, and take toddy and
cheroots into the bargain ; but lyenar is regarded as
far too good a being to be pleased by the sight of
bloodshed.

4. Again, the pujaris, i.e. the priestly ministrants,
the men who perform the Pujd, i.e. the worship, are
not Brahmans? but are drawn from all the other castes.

1 The whole Hindu people in North India may be likened to
a great step-pyramid, consisting of five stories. These are
exclusive groups, marked off from each other by deep distinctions
in religious and social standing and in ideal function :

LEADING FEATURES OF THE RELIGION 19

It is hardly ever possible to make any general
statement about any subject in India without at once
being confronted with facts which seem to prove
that you are wrong ; accordingly, I may mention that I
have found cases where Brahmans officiate as pujaris at
the shrines of village deities. I came across one such
case at Negapatam ; while, at Bangalore, I actually
found a case where a Brahman widow was the minis-
trant. About three miles from Tanjore, too, there is a
temple of Mariamma served by Brahman priests. But
no animal sacrifices are offered at the central shrine
where Brahmans minister. In one corner of the temple
area there is a separate shrine with an image of Mari
amma where animals are regularly sacrificed ; but at this
shrine no Brahmans officiate. I believe that it is the
only temple or shrine of Mariamma in South India
where there are Brahman priests. But then, in these
cases the Brahman pujari never has anything to do with
animal sacrifices. These are always conducted entirely
by men of lower castes, and, even so, it is a degradation
for a Brahman to be connected as pujari with a shrine
where such abominations take place ; but, according to
the Indian proverb, "For the sake of one's stomach
one must play many parts." Setting aside these
exceptional cases, it may be stated generally that no

C Aboriginals, reckoned pure
Sudras : servants ] and admitted to the tem-

( pies.

Outcastes, Panchamas (i.e. fifth- J Unclean, untouchable ab-
class men) I originals.

Foreigners are held unclean, and are called mlecchas. In
South India, it is to be noticed, the farmers, artisans, and trades
men are all classed as Sudras, and the Kshatriyas are practically
non-existent. The population, therefore, is divided, into three
main groups : the Brahmans of Aryan blood ; the Sudras, who
are Dravidians, admitted to the temples ; and the Outcastes,
who are partly Dravidians and partly still older inhabitants, not
admitted to the temples.

20 THE VILLAGE GODS OP SOUTH INDIA

Brahmans are the priests of village deities, but that the
pujaris are drawn from all other castes indiscriminately,
while an important part in the worship, especially that
connected with the buffalo-sacrifices, is even taken by
Outcastes. As will be seen later on, the buffalo-
sacrifice has special features of its own, and seems to
retain traces of a primitive form of worship, which may
possibly have originated in totemism.

In addition to the grama-devatas, who are in a
special sense the village deities, there are a large
number of spirits of all kinds, male and female, who
are worshipped by the villagers. The worship of
departed ancestors played an important part in the old
Dravidian religion and is still universal all over South
India. So men and women, boys and girls, who have
died violent or untimely deaths, or who have been notor
ious for their power or even their crimes, are frequently
worshipped after death. It is probable that a large
proportion of these gods have been reverenced for
centuries , but many are of quite recent origin. Some
were originally people who were murdered, or who
during their lifetime were feared for their power or
their crimes, or women who died in child-birth. It is
easy to observe a deity in the making even at the
present day.

A district superintendent of police in the Telugu
country told me that in 1904, at a village some twelve
miles from Ellore, two little boys, minding cattle in the
fields, thought they heard the sound of trumpets
proceeding from an ant-hill. They told the story in
the village, and at once the people turned out and did
puja to the deity in the ant-hill. The fame of the deity's
presence spread like wild-fire far and wide, and the
village became the centre of pilgrimages from all the
country round about. Every Sunday as many as 5,000
people, men and women, assembled before the ant-hill,
and might be seen prostrate on their faces, rapt in
adoration. The incident illustrates the ease with which
a local cult springs up in India and suddenly becomes
popular over a large district.

LEADING FEATURES OF THE RELIGION 21

Another instance came to my notice a few years ago
at Bezwada. A small boy, the son of well-to-do
parents, was murdered near the town for the sake of his
ornaments, and thrown into the canal. The body was
discovered and placed under a tree near the bank of the
canal, at a place where three roads meet. A little after,
a small shrine, about a foot and a half high, was built
by the parents under a tree to the spirit of the murdered
boy. Then some one declared that he had made a vow
at the shrine and obtained his desire. The fame of the
shrine at once spread, the spirit of the boy rose quite to
the rank of a minor deity, and a local worship speedily
sprang up and became popular. When I last saw the
shrine it had been enlarged and had become about
twice its original size.

About sixty years ago a Hindu widow, named
Ramamma, lived between Bezwada and Hyderabad,
farming some land left her by her husband. After a
time she contracted immoral relations with one of her
servants, Buddha Sahib. Her brother was so angry
that he murdered them both. Then the cattle-plague
broke out ; and the villagers connected it with the
wrath of the murdered Ramamma, and instituted special
rites to pacify her spirit. And now, whenever there is
cattle-plague in the district, two rough wooden images,
about two feet high, are made to represent Maddha
Ramamma and Buddha Sahib, and, with two images of
local goddesses as their attendants, are put on a small
wooden cart and dragged in procession at night round
all the principal streets of the village, accompanied by
fireworks, music, and nautch-girls (i.e. dancing-girls of
loose character connected with Hindu temples).
Finally, the cart is dragged to the boundary of the
village lands and thrown into the territory of the
adjacent village, in order to transfer to it the angry
spirit of Ramamma.

Temples have been built to Plague-amma during
the last ten years, as a result of the prevalence of
plague.

Special reverence is paid to persons who come to

22 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

an untimely end, e.g. to the spirits of girls who die be
fore marriage, but when the circumstances of their
death specially strikes the imagination of the general
public, the reverence which is ordinarily confined to the
family expands into a regular local cult.

Then, again, there is the spirit of the boundary
stone, the spirits of hills and rivers, forests and trees,
the deities of particular arts and crafts, who are wor
shipped by particular classes of the population. The
worship of serpents, especially the deadly cobra, is
common all over South India. In one village of the
Wynaad I came across a Mission school which was
visited almost daily by a large cobra, which glided
undisturbed and harmless through the school-room.
Neither teachers nor pupils would have dared to kill it.
Constantly they fed it with milk. In many towrns and
villages large slabs of stone with figures of cobras, often
two cobras intertwined, carved in bas-relief are seen on
a platform under a large tree. They are worshipped
especially by women who want children.

CHAPTER II

NAMES, CHARACTERS, AND FUNCTIONS OF
THE VILLAGE GODS

(a) THE names of village deities are legion. Some
of them have an obvious meaning, many are quite un
intelligible to the people themselves, and I have often
failed to get any clue to their origin, even from native
pandits. They differ in almost every district, and often
the deities worshipped in one village will be quite
unknown in other villages five or six miles off. In
Masulipatam on the East Coast, in the Telugu country,
the following were given me as the names of the village
deities worshipped in the district, viz. Mutyalamma,
the pearl goddess (amma or amman is only a female
termination) ; Chinnintamma, the goddess who is head
of the house ; Challalamma, the goddess presiding over
buttermilk ; Ghantalamma, the goddess who goes with
bells ; Yaparamma, the goddess who transacts business ;
Mamillamma, the goddess who sits under a mango tree ;
Gangamma, the water goddess, who in this district is
the protectress against small-pox.

But, at a village about twenty miles from Masuli
patam, I found that fifteen different goddesses were
worshipped in the neighbourhood, of whom only four
were identical with those of Masulipatam. Some were
named after the villages from which they had been
imported, e.g. Addankamma, the goddess from Addanki,
and Pandilamma, the goddess from Pandil ; others had
names derived from common objects of country life, e.g.
Wanamalamma, the goddess of the tope, Balamma, the
goddess of the cart, and Sitalamma, the water goddess.

In the Ellore district, farther west, the deities

24 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

worshipped are chiefly Gahgamma, who is sometimes
called Mahalakshmi (one of the names of Vishnu's
wife), and sometimes Chamalamma (another name of
Kali, the wife of Siva), and Poleramma, the boundary
goddess, and Ankamma, who is regarded as the goddess
of cholera and disease generally.

Farther west than Ellore, across the hills, in the
Cuddapah and Kurnool districts, the village goddess is
often known simply as Peddamma (great goddess) or
Chinnamma (little goddess). In many villages, how
ever, of these districts these names are unknown, and
the village deities are called Gangamma, Polamma,
and Sunkalamma, etc. In some villages the village
deities consist of Potu-Razu and his seven sisters,
who are known by various names. In one village
they were given me as Peddamma, Isondamma,
Maramma, Arikalamma, Nukalamma, Vasukota, Ellam-
ma, and Arikamma.

Again, Kaliamma or Kali is said to be the only one
of the village goddesses whose name is found in the
Vedas. She is an avatara, or incarnation of the eight
powers of the universe. The story told about her is
that a demon named Mahishasura (the buffalo demon)
gave great offence to Siva, and was condemned to death.
But, owing to a privilege bestowed on him by Siva
himself, he could not be slain by the Trimurti1 nor by
any male deity. So the task was given to Kali, who
successfully accomplished it, and so won a place among
village deities.

At Cuddalore I visited a shrine of the goddess
Minachiamman at the village of Devanampatnam. It
stands on the seashore on a low ridge of sand. There
is no building, but an oblong space about 20 by 12 feet is
enclosed on three sides by rows of clay figures, the
eastern end towards the sea being left open. On the
western side of the oblong, facing the sea, there were

1 This word is used for an image with three heads, representing
Brahma, Vishnu, and S"iva as a triple manifestation of the
divine nature.

NAMES, CHARACTERS, AND FUNCTIONS 25

two small clay figures, apparently a man and a woman,
seated in the centre. They were about a foot high
with the remains of old garlands on them. To the
left and right of them were figures of seven virgins
(or Saptakannigais), very well modelled in clay and
about nine inches high. In front of them and beside
them were the figures of male guardians and atten
dants. On each side of the images of the virgins was a
figure of a large round fish, with open mouth and staring
eyes, and seated on the back of each fish were the
figures of a man and a woman. The pujari of the
shrine told me that the woman was Minachi the fish-
goddess, and the man Madurai-Viran. Beside each
fish were figures of guardians and attendants.
The north and south sides of the oblong, which are
about twenty-one feet in length, are formed by clay
figures of horses and elephants, some of them with men
on their backs. The elephants are quaint creatures,
very like horses with trunks. The horses are not
in this case steeds of the god lyenar, but simply
the attendants of Minachi and the seven virgins.
Animal sacrifices, consisting of goats, cocks, etc.,
are offered to these deities once a year at an annual
festival. The people at the shrine gave the name of the
fish as something like ullai ; but the translator of the
district and sessions court of South Arcot told me
that the fish on which Minachi and Madurai-Viran are
seated is the ullan fish, which is a sea-fish that runs
up the river in flood-times, when the bar is open, and
generally travels a considerable distance till it meets
with an anicut or some similar obstacle. It gets very
fat and-is a favourite dish. The goddess Minachi, who
is seated on it, is commonly worshipped by fishermen,
who swear by her name. She is the goddess worship
ped in the great temple of Madura together with the
god Siva. Madurai-Viran is a male attendant of nearly
all the village goddesses throughout the Tamil country,
and he is generally represented by a small conical stone
or the image of a man carved in bas-relief on a stone
slab, standing outside the shrine,

26 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

The Saptakannigais (the seven virgins), or Akasa-
kannigais (the heavenly virgins), are the tutelary
deities of tanks, and the figures of the Kannigais seated
in a row are often carved on a small stone and placed
on tank bunds, especially at places where the tank has
been breached. In the North Arcot district they are
described as female creatures who are very quarrel
some, and, when they fight, breaches are caused in the
tanks by the stamping of their feet. At the same time
they are supposed to protect tanks, and when the flood
rises to a dangerous point, it is said that one of the
Kannigais, in the shape of a little child, runs through
the village knocking at the doors and calling up the
villagers to come and protect the bund. It is believed
that people walking alone along a tank bund have some
times met the Saptakannigais, going in procession
with horses and torches, and that any one who sees them
invariably dies. The district judge told me that, in a
case which came before him in the North Arcot district,
a man who really died by a fracture of his skull, because
a cousin of his had hit him on the head with a thick
sugarcane, was reported to have died as the result of
meeting a procession of the Saptakannigais on the tank
bund, and that the village magistrate excused himself for
not reporting the man's death, because he considered
it to be a death by natural causes.

A male deity, called Kuttandavar, is worshipped in
many parts of the Tamil country, especially in the
South Arcot district. At the village of Devanam-
patnam, near Cuddalore, I saw an image of this god in
a small shrine built of brick, with a rough pandal of
bamboos, thatched with cocoanut leaves, in front of it.
The image consisted of a head, like a big mask, about
three feet high, with a rubicund face, strong features,
moustaches turning up at the end, lion's teeth project
ing downwards outside the mouth from the angles of
the upper jaw, and a tall conical head-dress, called in
Tamil Krittam. Below this stone there was a small
stone head about one and a half feet high, which was a
miniature of the larger figure. It was finely chiselled and

NAMES, CHARACTERS, AND FUNCTIONS 27

the people told me that it was the work of the stone-masons
who made the new images of Tirupapuliyur temple, t
Both images had the mark of Vishnu on their foreheads, so
also had the pujari of the shrine. The pujari said that
the images represented the god Kuttandavar, and he told
me the following legend about him. The god Indra, for
the crime of murdering a Brahman, became incarnated
in the form of Kuttandavar, and a curse was laid upon
him that his body should rot away, leaving only the
head ; with the result that no one would give him his
daughter in marriage ; because, if they were married in
the morning, his body would rot away before the even
ing and so the bride would become a widow and the tali
be cut. Sri Krishna, however, took pity on him,
assumed the female form of Mohini, and consented
to be married to him in the morning, and then, as he
vanished all but the head, the tali was cut in the even
ing. In memory of this event, during the festival,
which is celebrated in the month of Chitrai (April), a
crowd of men dressed as women come to the shrine
with talis on their necks. In the evening at sunset the
tali is cut, because the god has died and all the people
dressed as women have become widows. The festival,
therefore, is necessarily limited to the day-time. Fowls
and goats are sacrificed to the god a little distance in
front of the shrine. The festival is attended by all non-
Brahman castes. The people who showed me the
shrines said that Kuttandavar is so named from an
Asura, or Demon or Kuttu, whom the god killed. But
as Kuttandavar is especially the god of the actors or
dancers, or Kuttadis, who are very numerous in South
Arcot and are a sub-division of the Padaiyachi caste, it
seems likely that the name is derived from Kuttadi
(a dancer or actor). I was told that wherever the
Vaniyars or Padaiyachis are in great numbers, for instance,
in the South Arcot, Coimbatore and Salem districts,
and in the city of Madras, one is sure to see a large
number of shrines of the god Kuttandavar. The worship
of this god is, however, not considered to be very
respectable. There is apparently no immorality con-

28 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

nected with his worship, but more respectable members
of the caste do not like men dressing like women.
The members of the Padaiyachi caste, therefore, who
have been educated in recent years and have risen
in the social scale, tend to give up the worship of
Kuttandavar..

I have often seen on the seashore of Madras a
conical heap of sand, about three inches high, standing
on a small platform of sand, with camphor and incense in
a small earthenware vessel or in a heap of old netting.
The conical heap of sand represents the goddess
Kanniamma, the grama-devata of the fishing village.
The fishermen have told me that she is the goddess who
gives them fish and enables them to make a living, and
that they make these offerings to her when fish are scarce
and they have reason to think that she is angry. This
illustrates the characteristic feature of all animistic
worship. Its chief if not only motive is to propitiate
the angry deity. Probably something of the same
feeling lurks beneath the custom of Roman Catholic
fishermen, when they bring holy water from the church
and sprinkle it on their nets after they have toiled all
the day and caught nothing. Probably the object of this
custom is to exorcise a malignant spirit from the
nets.

In the Mysore country I came across quite a different
set of names for the village goddesses. Atone village,
near Bangalore, the name of the goddess was Mahesvar-
amma (great goddess), also called Savaramma (she
who rides on horseback). Her sister, Doddamma, and
her brother, Munesvara, share in the worship paid to
her. At another village a goddess, called Pujamma
(she who is worshipped), was shown to me. She was
said to be the local goddess of the M&digas, the lowest
section of the Outcastes in the Telugu country ; but at
the same time the Sudras1 make vows to her, to induce
her to ward off diseases from their homes, and then
fulfil their vows by sacrificing buffaloes or thrusting

1 See note on p. 19 above.

NAMES, CHARACTERS, AND FUNCTIONS 29

silver pins through their cheeks. Annamma is the
principal goddess at another shrine in Bangalore City,
and in the same shrine are six other deities, Chandesvar-
amma, Mayesvaramma, Maramma (the cholera god
dess), Udalamma (she of the swollen neck), Kokka-
lamma (the goddess of coughs), Sukhajamma (the
goddess of measles and small-pox).

At some villages a little distance from Bangalore
the deity was simply the grama-devata, the village
goddess. In Mysore City the grama-devata is know as
Bisal-Mariamma (Bisal in Canarese means sunlight,
and I was told that Mart means saktf or power). The
deity seems to have been originally connected with
sun-worship. I was told that her shrines are never
covered with a roof, and one of the symbols represent
ing the deity is a brass pot full of water with a small
mirror leaning against it, called Kimna-Kannadi, i.e.
eye-mirror.

There are seven Mari deities, all sisters, who are
worshipped in Mysore. All the seven sisters are
regarded vaguely as wives or sisters of Siva.

In Mysore villages Mahadeva-Amma, the great
goddess, and Huliamma, the tiger-goddess, are found ;
and doubtless there are countless other names in the
Mysore State for the many deities who are worshipped
as the guardians of the villages and the averters of
epidemics and other misfortunes.

It is quite probable that, originally, in South India
the village goddesses had all quite simple names, such
as Uramma or Grama-devata, both meaning village
goddess, or Peddamma, great mother, and that the
imagination of the villagers gradually invented special
titles for their own guardian deities. But at the present
time the village deities consist of a most miscellaneous
collection of spirits, good, bad, and indifferent, who

1 The chief Hindu gods are held to be actionless, far with
drawn from the bustle of the universe. In each case, however,
the god's energy manifests itself in his wife, who is called his
Sakti. Those Hindus who worship Kali, the wife of Siva, are
called Saktas. For Mari see also p. 32.

30 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

baffle all attempt at classification, enumeration, or
explanation. A few of them, like Mariamma and
lyenar, have won their way to general respect or fear
among the Tamil people ; and, where Brahman influence
is strong, there has been an obvious attempt, as we
have seen, to connect the village goddesses with the
popular worship of Siva or Vishnu; but it is more than
doubtful whether, originally, they had anything to do
with either Saivism or Vaishnavism. The stories told
about them in the folklore of the people, which re
present them as avataras, i.e. incarnations of Siva,
were probably quite late inventions, to account for
names and ceremonies whose meaning had long been
lost.

(b) The characters of the goddesses vary consider
ably. The villagers do not regard them as evil spirits,
but neither do they regard them as unmixed benefactors.
They are rather looked upon as beings of uncertain
temper, very human in their liability to take offence.
At Cocanada the pujaris told me that the village god
dess, who is significantly called Nukalamma from a
colloquial Tamil word meaning "to beat," causes all
sorts of trouble and is dreaded as an evil spirit. But
when an epidemic of cholera breaks out, they, curiously
enough, install another goddess, called Maridiamma, in
her place, and offer sacrifices to her instead of to
Nukalamma, a proceeding calculated, one would have
thought, to give dire offence.

Mahakali, i.e. great Kali, is another form or avatara
of the same goddess. She is supposed to be a deity of
furious temper, and to be the cause of the prevalence of
cholera. She is also known as Vira-Mahakali1 or Ugra-
Mahakali,2 to denote her rage and fury.

Another deity of similarly violent temper is
Arigalamma, who is worshipped largely in the Coim-
batore district. The idea seems to be that all who
worship the Ashta Sakti, or eight powers of the

1 Vlra is a Sanskrit word meaning heroic.
1 Ugra is a Sanskrit word meaning fierce.

NAMES, CHARACTERS, AND FUNCTIONS 31

universe, will attain to bliss, while the others will be
destroyed by Angalamma. The people worship her to
avoid falling victims to her unquenchable anger, since
her main object is believed to be to devour and consume
everything that comes in her way. She is said
especially to have a great relish for bones !

Another deity of a very different disposition is
Kamachiamma,1 whose name implies that she is full of
good and gracious qualities. She is reported to have
been born a Brahman girl, and then to have become the
avatara of one of the Ashta Sakti.

Another benevolent deity is Thuropathiamma, who
is reported to have been the wife of a Rishi and a very
virtuous woman ; so, in her next birth, she was allowed
to be born a king's daughter. Accordingly when
Thurupatham, King of Panchala, offered a puthray&gam
(putrayaga, i.e. a sacrifice to obtain a child) she came
forth from the fire. She afterwards became the wife
of the Pandavas, the five brothers famous in the great
Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, and is regarded as one of
the Ashta Sakti.

(c) The functions of the different goddesses are not
at all clearly marked in the Telugu country. The
people often told me " They are only different names
for the same goddess." In some places there is a
special cholera goddess, e.g. Ankamma, and in others
a special small-pox goddess, e.g. Garigamma ; but as a
rule the infliction and removal of epidemics and disasters
is a general function of all goddesses alike. On the
other hand, in the Coimbatore, Tanjore, and Trichino-
poly districts of the Tamil country, where the people
have been for many generations past far more influenced
by civilization and Brahmanism than in the Telugu
country, I found that the functions of different deities
were far more differentiated and that often elaborate
stories were current as to their origin and characters.
For example, one of the deities worshipped in almost

1 Sanskrit Kamakshi, " the love-eyed one," an epithet of Kali,
the wife of S*iva.

32 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

every village in the Tamil country is Mariamma or
Mari, the goddess of small-pox.

It is noticeable that Mariamma is not found in any
temples dedicated to one of the seven sisters, as she is
considered superior to them in power and much worse
in temper. The seven sisters are supposed to be kind
and indulgent, while Mariamma is vindictive and inexor
able and difficult to propitiate. The boundary goddess
is worshipped in the Tanjore district under the name
of Kali, and her special function is to prevent
any evil coming from without into the village of which
she is the guardian, while the seven sisters are
supposed to guard against any evil arising within the
village itself. Though Mariamma keeps herself aloof
from the seven sisters, I came across, in the South
Arcot district, a shrine dedicated to Kanniamma (who
was said to be another form of Mariamma and to
preside over small-pox), in which were clay images of
seven brothers. The youngest, called Muni (ghost),
was the tallest and was represented by a larger clay
figure seated on a raised platform, with his six smaller
brothers standing beside him.

In the Tamil districts of Tanjore, Trichinopoly
and Cuddalore, the names of village deities most
commonly met with are Pidari, which is often used as
a generic name of village deities, Mariamma, Kali,
Seliamma, Draupati,1 and Ahgalamma. Mariamma
is the commonest of them all, and her function is always
to inflict or ward off small-pox. Pidari is supposed to
act as guardian against evil spirits and epidemics,
especially cholera. Kali is often regarded as especially
the protectress against evil spirits that haunt forests
and desolate places, and against wild beasts. In some
parts she is the special goddess of the bird-catchers.
But in some villages she is also the guardian against
cholera. Except, however, in the villages near Tanjore,
I hsve not met with Kali in the capacity of a boundary
goddess. In other places there are curious ceremonies

1 This is for Draupadi, the heroine of the Mahabharata.

NAMES, CHARACTERS, AND FUNCTIONS 33

connected with the boundary-stone, ellai-kal as it is
called, and I was told in one village that in the boundary-
stone reside evil spirits, which it is the object of the
ceremonies to propitiate. In another village I found
that there was a festival to a goddess called Ellai-
Pidari.1

(d) Male deities. Next to Mariamma, the deity
that is most universally worshipped among the Tamils
is lyenar, and, as already stated, he is the one village
deity, largely worshipped in the Tamil country, who
seems to be an exception to the general rule that the
village deities are female. In almost every Tamil
village there is a shrine of lyenar, who is regarded as
the watchman of the village, and is supposed to patrol
it every night, mounted on a ghostly steed, a terrible
sight to behold, scaring away the evil spirits. He has
always a separate shrine, and is not, like Munadian
and Madurai-Viran,2 simply an attendant of a local
goddess. His shrine may be known by the clay or
concrete figures of horses ranged on either side of the
image or piled about in the compound of the shrine
in admired confusion. The horses are offered by
devotees, and represent the steeds on which he rides
in his nightly rounds. He is regarded by the villagers
as a good and benevolent protector, of far higher
character than the disreputable Madurai-Viran.

Another male deity, of much inferior character to
lyenar, who is sometimes worshipped separately, is
Karuppanna. As a rule he is simply one of the
subordinate male attendants of the village goddess :
but in some places I have met with separate shrines to
Karuppanna, where he presides as the chief deity. At
one of these shrines worship was offered exclusively by
Pariahs? At another place the evil spirit residing in
the boundary-stone was called Ellai-Karuppu.

In one village in the Trichinopoly district, I came

1 See below and cf. p. 101.

J Vlran is the Tamil form of Vlra, hero.

1 The chief group of Outcastes in the Tamil country.

3

34 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

across a male deity known as Raja Vayan (King
Father), who was represented by four or five stakes,
about five or six feet high, with iron spear-heads on
top. The spears were stuck on one side of a stone
platform under a tamarind and an areca tree, and
reminded me of the wooden stakes representing Potu-
Razu in the Telugu country. In one shrine belonging
exclusively to the Pariahs of a village, I found that the
chief deities were all male and not female. Whether
these independent and semi-independent male deities
have in all cases developed out of the subordinate male
attendants of the village deities, or whether they belong
to another Dravidian cult, it is difficult to say.

PLATE I

TYPICAL SHRINE OF GRAMA-DEVATA

INTERIOR OF SHRINE WITH STONES AS SYMBOLS

34

PLATE II

TYPICAL SHRINK OF GK AMA-DKYATA

CLAY HORSES OF IYHNAR

CHAPTER II

THE CULT
SHRINES, SYMBOLS, MINISTRANTS, FESTIVALS

Shrines. The shrines of the village deities, desti
tute of uniformity or comeliness, are characteristic of
this whole system of religion. They represent the
dwelling-places of petty local deities concerned with the
affairs of a petty local community. They express the
meanness of a religion of fear. There is nothing about
them to suggest feelings of adoration or love. Some of
the shrines, especially in the Tamil country, are fairly
large buildings, ornamented with grotesque figures,
almost rivalling in size and architectural features the
local temples of Siva and Vishnu. The shrines of
lyenar are distinguished by figures of horses great and
small, on which he is supposed to ride round the village
every night to chase away the evil spirits. But the
majority of the shrines are mean little brick buildings of
various shapes and sizes, often no more than four or
five feet high, with a rough figure of the deity inside,
carved in bas-relief on a small stone. In many villages
the shrine is simply a rough stone platform under a
tree, with stones or iron spears stuck on it to represent
the deity. Often a large rough stone with no carving
on it is stuck up in a field or under a tree, and serves
for shrine and image alike. The boundary-stone of
the village lands is very commonly regarded as a
habitation of a local deity, and might be called a shrine
or symbol with equal propriety.1 In many villages of

1 See above, p. 33,

36 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

the Telugu country there is no permanent shrine at all,
but a temporary one is put up made of bamboo and
cloth to accommodate the deity whenever a festival is
held. It seems probable that this "tent of meeting"
represents the primitive use, and that the permanent
shrine was a later development, when individual wor
shippers began to make offerings in times of domestic
trouble, and when the village community as a whole
realized more fully the need of help and protection in
the ordinary affairs of daily life.

Symbols. The images or symbols, by which the
village deities are represented, are /Imost as diverse as
their names. In some of the more primitive villages
there is no permanent image or symbol of the deity at
all ; but a clay figure of the goddess is made by the
potter, or the goldsmith, for each festival and then cast
away beyond the boundaries of the village when the
festival is ended. In other villages the deity is repre
sented simply by a stone pillar standing in a field, or on
a stone platform under a tree, or in a small enclosure
surrounded by a stone wall. Often the stones, which
represent the different deities, are simply small conical
stones not more than five or six inches high, blackened
with the anointing oil. It is difficult to see anything at
all peculiar in them which in any way fits them to be
symbols of the goddesses or their male attendants. In
more civilized parts a slab of stone has the figure of a
woman roughly carved upon it, sometimes with four,
six, or eight arms, holding various implements in her
hands, sometimes with only two arms, and sometimes
with none at all.

Here is the description of a typical image which I
saw in the Trichinopoly district. It was a stone figure
of a woman, about two and a half feet high, with eight
arms, and in her hands a knife, a shield, a bell, a devil's
head, a drum, a three-pronged fork, a goad, and a piece
of rope r1 truly a collection of articles worthy of a
schoolboy's pocket ! Another image of the goddess

1 Most of these objects appear in the hands of images of Siva
or of his wife Kali.

THE CULT 37

made of the five metals (gold, silver, brass, copper,
and lead) was kept, strangely enough, in the temple of
Siva, about two hundred yards off, for use in processions.
It is very common in the Tamil districts to find a stone
image fixed in the shrine, and a small portable metal
image, which is used in processions during the festival.1

Very often, too, the goddess is represented in
processions by a brass pot filled with water and decorat
ed with margosa2 leaves. I saw one of these brass
pots in a shrine of Kaliamma at Shiyali, in the Tanjore
district. It was about a foot high and a foot in diameter
at the base, and had four tubes sticking out just below
the neck. In other Tamil villages, where the image is
fixed in the shrine and there is no metal image to carry
in procession, an earthenware pot is used, filled with
water and decorated with margosa leaves.

At Irungalur, in the Trichinopoly district, I found a
small enclosure sacred to Kurumbaiamma, outside the
village, without any image or sacred stones in it at all,
and I was told that during the festival a small pandal
(i.e. booth) of leaves is erected in the enclosure, under
which a small earthen pot, curiously decorated, is placed
to represent the goddess. The pot is filled with water,
and has a silver two-anna piece ( 2d. ) put inside it. Some
cocoanut and oleander flowers are stuck in the mouth of
the pot, surrounded and concealed by a sheaf of mango
leaves, tied together by tender shoots of the banana tree.
This bunch of mango leaves is then decorated with
flowers, a small pointed stick of bamboo, with a lime
stuck on the end, is inserted at the top of the bunch, and
by the side of the lime a small silver umbrella with a
silver handle. The decoration varies locally. This
decorated pot is placed on a small platform of sand, and
about eight measures of rice are heaped round the base
of it. It is called karagam, i.e. the pot, and is carefully
prepared at the chief local shrine of Kurumbaiamma,

1 This practice is borrowed from Hindu temples.

1 The margosa or neern tree is an evergreen bearing white
flowers, Melia Azadirachta, and is frequently associated with
village divinities.

38 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

about a mile outside the village, and during the festival
is treated exactly like the goddess. It is taken round in
procession on the head of a pujari to the sound of tom
toms1 and pipes ; offerings of fruit and flowers are made
to it ; a lamb is sacrificed before it, and it is worshipped
with the orthodox prostrations.

The use made of the karagam is also worth notice.
The following is from an article by Mr. F. J. Richards,
I.C.S. :—

' The cholera goddess is popularly believed to be
the mother of the washerman. He is therefore chosen
to officiate as the pujari, as the son alone can hope to
succeed in propitiating such a fierce divinity.

"A karagam is prepared ; and the village washerman
bathes early in the morning and places it on his head.
Then, holding a sickle in one hand and margosa leaves in
the other, he goes through the village dancing. Before
the karagam procession takes place, all the villagers
pour large quantities of ragi gruel into the big iron
buckets used for baling water. When two or three
of such buckets are filled, the poor people of the village
are fed. The washerman dances at the place where
the food is distributed. After dusk, when the procession
passes through the village, sheep are sacrificed at the
important centres in the village, and the blood collected
in a mud vessel. The washerman, with the karagam
on his head, goes on dancing through the limits of the
village, preceded by the village musicians. At the
point where his village borders on the adjoining village
he places the karagam and the blood which had been
collected at the different places of sacrifice, and returns
home after taking a bath on his way. The goddess is
believed to be propitiated by this, and any further
attacks of cholera are attributed to the perfunctory
discharge of this duty by the washerman. The sacri
ficial victims are sheep only, and the method of sacrifice
is decapitation. The deity is thus propitiated and

1 A tom-tom is a native drum. It is usually shaped like a
small barrel, and beaten at both ends with the hands and fingers.

PLATE III

K A RAG AM

•-

I' LATE IV

ITJARI WITH ARATI

STONK SYMBOL Oh I'OTl'-KA/.r WITH STAKK 1-OK
IMl'AI.I.NT, ANIMALS

THE CULT 39

carried beyond the village limits. The villagers of the
adjacent villages in their turn carry the karagam to the
border of the next village, and in this way the karagam
traverses many miles of country, and the baleful influence
of the goddess is transferred to a safe distance."1

At another village I found that Kaliamma was
represented by seven brass pots, without any water
in them, one above the other, with margosa leaves
stuck into the mouth of the topmost pot, as well as by
an earthenware pot filled with water and also adorned
with margosa leaves. It is possible that the seven
brass pots represent seven sisters, or the seven virgins
sometimes found in Tamil shrines. The people them
selves have no idea what they mean, but can only
say that it is Mamul, i.e. custom.

At Mysore City, in the Canarese country, I found,
as stated above,2 that the goddess was represented by
a small metal pot full of water with a small mirror
leaning against it. In the mouth of the pot two, four,
or six betel* leaves are placed, always an even number,
and the pot is decorated with a bunch of cocoanut
flowers. The pot is called Kunna-Kannadi, eye-mirror,
or Kalsa, and is used, I was told, as a symbol of deity
in the preliminary ceremonies of all the Brahmans. It
is evidently connected with sun-worship, which in
Mysore seems to have strongly influenced the cult of
the village deities.

Another curious symbol much used in Mysore is
called arati.* It consists of a lamp made of rice flour
about six or eight inches high, with the image of a face

1 Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, Jan., 1920, p. 108.

8 P. 29.

8 Betel is a pepper plant, the leaf of which is wrapped round
the nut of the areca palm and eaten by Indians as a digestive.

* The waving of a lamp in front of an image of a god is an
orthodox Hindu custom. It is also frequently observed in the
case of kings and other great personages. The object is to ward
off the evil eye and other harmful influences. It is performed
only by married women or nautch-girls. The name of the lamp
and of the act of waving is arati. See Dubois, Hindu Manners
and Customs, p. 148. Hence the symbol described in the text.

40 THE VILLAGE GODS OP SOUTH INDIA

roughly represented on one side of it by pieces of silver
and blotches of kunkuma,1 red paste, stuck on to
represent the eyes, nose, mouth, etc. Sticks of incense
were stuck in the lamp all round, and on the top were
about four betel leaves stuck upright and forming a sort
of cup with a wreath of white flowers below them. An
arati was brought to me at Mysore by the pujaris for
my inspection. It was a quaint object, and seemed like
the relic of some harvest festival of bygone days.

A common symbol of the village deities is simply
a stick or a spear. It is very common in the Tamil
country to see one or more iron spears stuck in the
ground under a tree, to represent some village deity.
The idea seems to be that the deity is represented by
his weapons. In the Telugu country Potu-Razu, the
brother or husband of the village goddess, is sometimes
represented by a stone, sometimes by a thin wooden
stake, like an attenuated post, about four or five feet
high and roughly carved at the top. It faintly resembles
a spear, and is called Sulam, which in Telugu means a
spear.2 Sometimes this stake stands beside a slab of
stone representing Potu-Razu. At one village the
symbol of Potu-Razu is a painted image made of wood,
about three feet high, representing a warrior, sitting
down with a sword in his hand, and carrying a lime and
nine glass bangles belonging to his sister Ellamma.
Beside each foot is the figure of a cock, and in the shrine
is kept a large painted mask for the pujari to wear at
festivals, as he dances round the image of Potu-Razu.
But elaborate images of Potu-Razu of this kind are not
very often found.

Another symbol akin to these stakes and spears is
the Nattan Kal in the Tamil country. Nattan means
" planted " and Kal means " a stone " or " post." The
Nattan Kal is the first post of a nuptial booth, set up at
an auspicious moment, painted red and white, adorned

1 See p. 50.

1 Siva's spear is called Sual in Sanskrit, and his trident is
triSiila, three-spike.

THE CULT 41

with various decorations, and worshipped with offerings
of cocoanuts and flowers. The symbolism is obscure.

The name is also applied to a small stone set up at
the entrance to a village, which, according to a writer in
the Indian Interpreter, who reviewed the first edition
of this book in the January number, 1917, "is said to
represent all the other Nads which are comprised in
the particular district to which that place belongs,"
and is worshipped on the occasion of a marriage. The
reviewer thinks that "it is evident that it points back
to a time when people were not so numerous or so
widely separated, and when all could come to the
marriage festivities," and that "when that time passed
some means had to be found for the representation of
the others "; for this purpose a stone was erected to
symbolize the clan and worship offered to it. It is
probable, however, that the stone placed at the entrance
of Tamil villages is akin to the Boddu-rayee, or navel-
stone, set up at the foundation of a village in the Telugu
country, as described below on page 60, which probably
represents, like the boundary- stone, the spirit of the
land on which the village is built.

The Nattan Kal set up for the wedding-booth may,
in the same way, represent the spirit who presides
over the procreation of children, and may possibly be a
phallic emblem, like the lingam of Siva.

Why stones or posts should in this way represent
spirits it is difficult to explain. I have given below on
page 148 what seems to me a possible explanation. But
it must be admitted that all explanations can only be
regarded as more or less probable hypotheses.

The shrines and images or! Kogillu, a village in the
Mysore country not far from Bangalore, are typical of
that part of the country. At the extreme entrance to
the village, near a tank, stands a small shrine of stone
and mud sacred to the goddess Pujamma (she who is
worshipped). On the stone door-posts are carved
figures of serpents. Within the shrine there is no
image of any kind, but on the left-hand side of the door
is a platform, covered with garlands of white flowers,

42 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

with a small earthenware lamp upon it, which is kept
burning day and night as a symbol of the goddess.

To the right of this shrine stands a smaller one
dedicated to a goddess called Dalamma. No one in the
village could tell me who the goddess was nor what her
name meant. There was no image nor lamp nor symbol
of any kind in her shrine. An old picture frame, hung
up on the wall to the left, without any picture in it, was
the only attempt at decoration or symbolism. Just
within the doorway was a shallow trough about one and
a half feet long, one foot broad, and two inches deep,
where the worshippers break their cocoanuts.

In front of the larger shrine stood an enclosure
about five or six yards square, enclosed by a stone wall,
with four slabs of stone in the centre, on which a plat
form is erected, covered by a canopy of cloth and leaves,
during the annual festival. The lighted lamp is then
brought out from the shrine, placed under the canopy,
and worshipped as the symbol of the goddess.
Apparently cattle are tethered in the enclosure at other
times, and, when I saw it, there were no obvious marks
of sanctity about it. About twenty yards off stands the
Cattle Stone, a slab of rough stone about five feet high
and three feet broad, set upon a stone platform about
one and a half feet high. When the cattle get sore
feet, their owners pour curds over the Cattle Stone for
their recovery.

Near the Cattle Stone, in a field on the outskirts
of the houses, stands a square stone pillar, about
five feet high and half a foot in thickness, without
any carving or ornament on it whatever. It repre
sents Maramma, the goddess of small-pox and other
epidemics, a most malignant spirit. Apparently she
had been brought to this village by some people who
had migrated from another village called Hethana ;
whence she is called Maramma-Hethana. Buffaloes and
sheep are offered to her whenever epidemics break
out.

The grama-devata herself — she has no other name
— has in this village no permanent image. The gold-

THE CULT 43

smith makes an image of clay in the form of a woman,
about one or one and a half feet high, every year at the
annual festival, which takes place after harvest, and she
is then placed in the centre of the village under a
canopy of green boughs. One striking feature of this
festival is that on the first day of the festival a woman
comes from every household to the place of worship
with a lighted lamp made of rice flour, called arati ; and
they all together wave their lamps in a circle from left
to right above their heads and from right to left below.1
When the festival is over, the washerman of the village,
who acts as pujari, accompanied by all the villagers,
takes the image to the tank, walks into the water, and
leaves it there. In some villages in the Mysore State
the arati is presented by the men, the heads of the
households, and not by the women. But in all the
annual festivals in these parts the presentation of the
arati, which seems often to be regarded as a symbol of
the deity herself, forms an important part of the
ceremonial.

Ministrants. One of the most striking features of
the worship of the village deities is the absence of any
thing like a sacerdotal caste in connexion with it.
Every other department of village work belongs to a
special caste, and in the ordinary worship of Vishnu
and Siva the priestly caste of the Brahmans is supreme.
But in the worship of the village deities the pujaris are
drawn from all the lower castes indiscriminately,
though in any one village the pujaris of a particular
goddess nearly always belong to one particular
caste.

I have occasionally found a Brahman in charge of a
grama -devata shrine in the Tamil country. But then,
as I have noted above, the Brahman pujari never takes
any part in the animal sacrifices, and, even so, is
degraded by his connexion with the shrine. In tne
Telugu country the potters and the washermen, who
are Sudras of low caste, often officiate as priests, and

1 See p. 39, n. 4.

44 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

an important part, especially i-n the buffalo sacrifices,
is taken by the Malas and Madigas.1

A Madiga nearly always kills the buffalo and
performs the unpleasant ceremonies connected with
the sprinkling of the blood, and there are certain
families among the Malas, called Asadis, who are the
nearest approach to a priestly caste in connexion with
the village deities. They have the hereditary right to
assist at the sacrifices, to chant the praises of the
goddess while the sacrifices are being offered, and
to perform certain ceremonies. But in the more
primitive villages, where, it may be presumed, pri
mitive customs prevail, it is remarkable how great
a variety of people take an official part in the worship :
the potter, the carpenter, the toddy-drawer, the
washerman, Malas and Madigas, and even the Brah
man Karnam or village accountant, have all their
parts to play.

In the Tamil country this is not so marked, and
the details of the worship are left far more to the
regular pujari. It is noticeable that the office of pujari
is by no means an honourable one, and this is especially
the case among the Tamils, where Brahman influence is
strong and the shedding of blood is regarded with
aversion. And even among the Brahmans themselves,
though they owe their influence to the fact that they are
the priestly caste, the men who serve the temples are
regarded as having a lower position in the caste than
those Brahmans engaged in secular pursuits.

Among the Canarese in the Bellary district the
Asadis take a similar part in the worship to the Asadis
in the Telugu country. In the whole of the Bellary
district there are about sixty families of them living in
three separate villages. They form practically a
separate caste or section of the Outcastes. They eat
food given them by the Madigas and take their girls in
marriage. The Asadi girls, however, never marry, but

1 The Malas and Madigas are the chief groups of Outcastes
in the Telugu country.

PLATE V

PLATE VI

KCDK SHRIN

MINACHI AND THE SEVEN SISTERS, CT 1)1 'A I ( ) K I-

45

THE CULT 45

are made Basams^ i.e. are consecrated to the goddess,
and become prostitutes. Certainly the degradation of
religion in India is seen only too plainly in the
degradation of the priesthood.

Festivals. There is no act of uniformity and no
ecclesiastical calendar regulating the festivals or forms
of worship of village deities, and no universal custom
as to the appointment of ministrants. In some villages,
where there is a permanent shrine, offerings of rice,
fruit, and flowers, with incense and camphor, are made
every day by the villagers, who have made vows to the
goddess, through the pujari. Often offerings are made
once or twice a week, on fixed days, consisting chiefly
of grain, fruit, and flowers and occasionally of goats,
sheep, and fowls. In many places there is a fixed
annual festival, which sometimes takes place after
harvest, when the people are at leisure and well off
for food ; but there is no regular rule as to the time,
and the custom varies widely in different districts.
In most places, however, there is no regular annual
festival, but sacrifices are offered whenever an epide
mic or any other calamity occurs which may make
it expedient to propitiate the goddess. In some villages
old men complained to me that, whereas formerly
sacrifices were offered yearly, now, owing to the decay
of religion, they are only offered once in four or five
years. So, again, there is no uniformity as to the
duration of a festival. Generally it lasts about a week,
but in the Tamil country it is sometimes a very elabo
rate affair, lasting for a fortnight, three weeks, or even
a whole month ; so too in some parts of the Canarese
country the Mari festival, which is held in February,
lasts for about four weeks. But a long festival is an
expensive luxury, which only a large town or a well-to-
do village is able to afford. Speaking generally, the
object of the festival is simply to propitiate the goddess

1 See Dubpis, Hindu Manners and Customs, p. 133 ; Farquhar.
Modern Religious Movements in India, p. 408. The word basavl
is a feminine formed directly from basava, a bull. For basava,
see below, p. 125, n. 1.

46 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

and to avert epidemics and other calamities from the
village, and to ward off the attacks of evil spirits.

Every village in South India is believed by the
people to be surrounded by evil spirits, who are always
on the watch to inflict diseases and misfortunes of all
kinds on the unhappy villagers. They lurk every
where, on the tops of palmyra trees, in caves and rocks,
in ravines and chasms. They fly about in the air, like
birds of prey, ready to pounce down upon any unpro
tected victim, and the Indian villagers pass through life
in constant dread of these invisible enemies. So the
poor people turn for protection to the guardian deities
of their village, whose function it is to ward off these
evil spirits and protect the village from epidemics of
cholera, small-pox, or fever, from cattle disease, failure
of crops, childlessness, fires, and all the manifold ills
that flesh is heir to in an Indian village.

The sole object, then, of the worship of these
village deities is to propitiate them and to avert their
wrath. There is no idea of praise and thanksgiving,
no expression of gratitude or love, no desire for any
spiritual or moral blessings. The one object is to get
rid of cholera, small-pox, cattle disease, or drought, or
to avert some of the minor evils of life. The worship,
therefore, in most of the villages, only takes place
occasionally. Sometimes, as I have stated above, there
are daily offerings made to the deity ; but, as a rule,
the worship is confined to one big sacrifice, which takes
place once a year, or on the occasion of some special
disaster or outbreak of disease. The general attitude of
the villager towards his village deity is "Let sleeping
dogs lie." So long as everything goes on well and there
is no disease afflicting man or beast, and no drought nor
other great calamity, it seems safest to let her alone.
But, when misfortune comes, it is a sign that she is out
of temper, and it is time to take steps to appease her
wrath.

I have dignified the periodical sacrifices to the
village goddesses by the name of festivals. But the
term is a misnomer. There is really nothing of a

THE CULT 47

festal character about them. They are only gloomy
and weird rites for the propitiation of angry deities
or the driving away of evil spirits, and it is very
difficult to detect any traces of a spirit of thankfulness
or praise. Even the term worship is hardly correct.
The object of all the various rites and ceremonies is not
to worship the deity in any true sense of the word, but
simply to propitiate it and avert its wrath. A brief des
cription of the sacrifices and offerings themselves will
make this clear. But I must premise that, as with the
names and images and shrines, so with the offerings
and sacrifices, there is no law of uniformity : the
variations of local use and custom are innumerable.
Still, the accounts here given'will give a fair idea of the
general type of rites and ceremonies prevalent through
out South India, in the propitation of village deities.

CHAPTER IV

MODES OF WORSHIP IN THE TELUGU
COUNTRY

LET us suppose that an attack of cholera or small
pox has broken out in a village of South India. We
will take a village in the Telugu country, in one of the
more backward districts, where life is lived under more
primitive conditions than in places where large towns
and railways and the influence of the Brahmans have
tended to change old-fashioned ideas and customs.

A Telugu Village. The village deity, in this
particular village, is called Peddamma, the great
mother. The epidemic is a sign that she is angry and
requires to be propitiated. So a collection is made for
the expenses of a festival, or a rich man offers to pay
all expenses, and a propitious day is selected, which in
this village may be any day except Sunday or Thursday.
Then the potter of the village is instructed to make
a clay image of the great mother, and the carpenter to
make a small wooden cart, and a buffalo is chosen as
the chief victim for the sacrifice.

When the appointed day arrives, the buffalo is
sprinkled all over with yellow turmeric^ while
garlands of margosa leaves are hung round its neck
and tied to its horns. At about two p.m. it is conducted
round the village in procession to the sound of music and
the beating of tom-toms. The two sections of the
Outcastes, the Malas and the Madigas, take the leading

1 Curcuma longa is an Indian plant from the rootstock of
which a powder called turmeric is extracted. This powder is
used as a dye and also as one of the ingredients of curry-
powder.

WORSHIP IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY 49

part in the sacrifice, and conduct the buffalo from
house to house. One Madiga goes on ahead, with a tom
tom, to announce that "the buffalo devoted to the
goddess is coming." The people then come out from
their houses, bow down to worship the buffalo, and
pour water over his feet, and also give some food to the
Malas and Madigas, who form the procession. By
about eight p.m. this ceremony is finished, and the buffalo
is brought to an open spot in the village and tied up near
a small canopy of cloths supported on bamboo poles,
which has been set up for the reception of the goddess.
All the villagers then assemble at the same place, and at
about ten p.m. they go in procession, with music and tom
toms and torches, to the house of the potter, where the
clay image is ready prepared. On arriving at his house,
they pour about two and a half measures of rice on the
ground and put the image on the top of it, adorned with
a new cloth and jewels. All who are present then
worship thfe image, and a ram is killed, its head being
cut off with a large chopper, and the blood sprinkled on
the top of the image, as a kind of consecration. The
potter then takes up the idol and carries it out of the
house for a little distance, and gives it to a washerman,
who carries it to the place where the canopy has been set
up to receive it. During the procession the people
flourish sticks and swords and spears to keep off the evil
spirits, and, for the same purpose, cut limes in half
and throw them up in the air. The idea is that the
greedy demons will clutch at the golden limes and
carry them off, and so be diverted from any attack
on the man who carries the image. When the idol
has been duly deposited under the canopy, another
procession is made to the house of the toddy-drawer.
He is the man who climbs the palm trees and draws
off the juice which is made into toddy. At his house
some rice is cooked, and a pot of toddy and a bottle of
arrack^ are produced and duly smeared with yellow
turmeric and a red paste, constantly used in religious

1 Arrack is a native intoxicant.

SO THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

worship among the Hindus and called kimkuma^ The
cooked rice is put in front of the pot of toddy and bottle
of arrack, a ram is killed in sacrifice, and then the
toddy-drawer worships the pot and the bottle. The
village officials pay him his fee, three-eighths of a measure
of rice, three-eighths of a measure of cholam2 and four
annas, and then he carries the pot and bottle in proces
sion, and places them under the canopy near the image of
Peddamma. Then comes yet another procession. The
people go off to the house of the chief official, the
Reddy, and bring from it some cooked rice in a large
earthenware pot, some sweet cakes, and a lamb. A
large quantity of margosa leaves are spread on the
ground in front of the image, the rice from the Reddy 's
house is placed upon them in a heap, and a large heap
of rice, from one hundred to three hundred measures,
according to the amount of the subscriptions, is poured
in a heap a little farther away.

All these elaborate proceedings form only the
preparations for the great sacrifice, which is now
about to begin. The lamb is first worshipped and
then sacrificed by having its throat cut and its head
cut off. A ram is next brought and stood over the first
large heap of rice, and is there cut in two, through the
back, with a heavy chopper, by one of the village
washermen. The blood pours out over the rice and
soaks it through. One half of the ram is then taken up
and carried to a spot a few yards off, where a body of
Asadis are standing ready to begin their part in the
ceremonies. The other half of the ram is left lying
on the rice. The Asadis then begin to sing a long chant
in honour of the deity. Meanwhile, the chief sacrifice
is made. The buffalo is brought forward, and the
Madigas kill it by cutting its throat (in some villages its
head is cut off). Some water is first poured over the
blood, and then the pool of blood and water is covered
up carefully with earth, lest any outsider from another

1 Made of turmeric mixed with lime.

* A coarse grain, the staple food of the villagers.

PLATE VII

50

PLATE VIII

WORSHIP IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY 51

village should come and steal it. The idea is that if
any man from another village should take away and
carry home even a small part of the blood, that village
would get the benefit of the sacrifice. The head of the
buffalo is then cut off and placed before the image, with
a layer of fat from its entrails smeared over the fore
head and face, so as to cover entirely the eyes and nose.
The right foreleg is cut off and placed crosswise in the
mouth, some boiled rice is placed upon the fat on the
forehead, and on it an earthenware lamp, which is kept
alight during the whole of the festival. Why the right
foreleg should be cut off and placed in the mouth, and
what the meaning of it is, I have never been able to
discover nor can I conjecture. When I have asked the
villagers, they only reply, "It is the custom." But I
have fou'id the custom prevailing in all parts of South
India, among Tamils, Telugus, and Canarese alike, and I
have been informed that exactly the same custom pre
vails in the Southern Maratha country. It seems to be
a very ancient part of the ritual of sacrifice prevailing
in South India.1 This completes the presentation of
the sacrifice to the goddess, who is supposed to delight
in the food offered, and especially in the blood. A great
deal of the food offered is, as a matter of fact, taken

1 Maharaja Sir V. S. Ranga Rao Bahadur, G.C.I.E., C.B.E.,

writes in The Asiatic Review for January, 1919 : " The Lord
Bishop wishes to know why the leg of an animal is put crosswise
in its mouth after it has been sacrificed before the village god
dess. Among the menial castes of a village there is the practice
of a guilty man putting a piece of dry grass crosswise in his
mouth when he goes to the head of his village to ask his pardon.
It denotes that he has committed a wrong act, as a beast. In
places where grass is not available, the person in question puts
the first finger of his right hand crosswise in his mouth with the
same idea or purpose. Here the animals are sacrificed before the
village gods and goddesses by the people in the expectation, or
rather with the firm belief, that their sins will be forgiven by
those deities, and that their consequences will be thus averted by
means of those sacrifices. Instead of putting their fingers in
their mouths, as stated before, they put the animal's leg
(generally the right leg) crosswise in its mouth. Though I am
not sure that this is the explanation of this practice, I presume
that it must be along these lines, as no other ground is traceable."

52 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

away by the people and eaten in their homes, but the
idea is that the goddess takes the essence and leaves
the worshippers the material substance. This takes till
about three a.m. next morning ; and then begins another
important part of the ceremonies.

Some of the rice from the heap, over which the ram
was sacrificed and its blood poured out, is taken and put
in a flat basket, and some of the entrails of the buffalo
are mixed with it. The intestines of the lamb, which
was first killed, are put over the neck of a Mala, and its
liver is placed in his mouth,1 while another Mala takes
the basket of rice soaked in blood and mixed with the
entrails of the buffalo. A procession is then formed
with these two weird figures in the middle. The man
with the liver in his mouth is worked up into a state of
frantic excitement and is supposed to be inspired by the
goddess. He has to be held by men on either side of
him, or kept fast with ropes, to prevent his rushing
away ; and all round him are the ryots, i.e. the small
farmers, and the Malas, flourishing clubs and swords,
and throwing limes into the air, to drive away the evil
spirits. As the procession moves through the village,
the people shout out " Food ! Food ! " and the man who
carries the basket sprinkles the rice soaked in blood over
the houses to protect them from evil spirits. As he
walks along, he shouts out, at intervals, that he sees the
evil spirits, and falls down in a faint. Then lambs have
to be sacrificed on the spot and limes thrown into the
air and cocoanuts broken, to drive away the demons and
bring the man to his senses. And so the procession
moves through the village, amid frantic excitement,
till, as the day dawns, they return to the canopy, where
the great mother is peacefully reposing.

At about ten a.m. a fresh round of ceremonies
begins. Some meat is cut from the carcass of the
buffalo and cooked with some cholam, and then given to
five little Mala boys, siddhalu, the innocents, as they are
called. They are all covered over with a large cloth,

1 Cf. pp.109, 148 below

WORSHIP IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY 53

and eat the food entirely concealed from view, probably
to prevent the evil spirits from seeing them, or the evil
eye from striking them. And then some more food is
served to the Asadis, who have been for many hours,
during the ceremonies of the night, chanting the praises
of the goddess. After this the villagers bring their
offerings. The Brahmans, who may not kill animals,
bring rice and cocoanuts, and other castes bring lambs,
goats, sheep, fowls, and buffaloes, which are all killed
by the washermen, by cutting their throats, except the
buffaloes, which are always killed by the Madigas, the
lowest class of Outcastes. The heads are all cut off and
presented to the goddess. This lasts till about three
p.m., when the people go off to the house of the village
carpenter, who has got ready a small wooden cart. On
their arrival some cooked rice is offered to the cart, and
a lamb sacrificed before it, and a new cloth and eight
annas are given to the carpenter as his fee. The cart
is then dragged by the washermen, to the sound of
horns and tom-toms, to the place of sacrifice. The heads
and carcasses of the animals already sacrificed are first
removed by the Malas and Madigas, except the head of
the buffalo first offered, which remains in its place till
all the ceremonies are finished, when the shrine is
removed.

At about seven p.m. another series of ceremonies
begins. First a lamb is sacrificed before the goddess, and
its blood mixed with some cooked rice, and at the same
time a pig is buried up to the neck in a pit at the
entrance of the village, with its head projecting above
the earth. The villagers go in procession to the spot,
while one of the Madigas carries the rice, soaked in the
blood of the lamb, in a basket. All the cattle of the
village are then brought to the place and driven over the
head of the unhappy pig,1 which is, of course, trampled
to death ; and, as they pass over the pig, the blood
and rice are sprinkled upon them to preserve them from
disease. Then, after this, follows the final ceremony.

1 Cf. p 58 below.

54 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

The image of the goddess is taken from the canopy
by the washerman, and a Madiga takes the head of the
buffalo with its foreleg in the mouth, the forehead and
nostrils all smeared over with fat, and the earthen lamp
still lighted on the top. They then all go in procession
to the boundary of the village, first the men carrying
the buffalo's head, next the washerman with the image,
and last the small wooden cart. When the procession
arrives at the extreme limit of the village lands, they
go on, for about a furlong, into the lands of the neigh
bouring village. There the Asadis first chant the
praises of the goddess, then some turmeric is distributed
to all the people, and finally the image is divested of
all its ornaments and solemnly placed upon the
ground and left there. The light on the head of
the buffalo is extinguished, and the head itself carried
off by the Madiga, who takes it for a feast to his
own house. The object of transporting the goddess
to the lands of the next village is to transfer to that
village the wrath of the deity, a precaution which does
not show much faith in the temper of the goddess, nor
much charity towards their neighbours !

Gudivada, near Masulipatam. A somewhat differ
ent form of ceremonial prevails in some of the villages
of the Telugu country nearer the coast. The village of
Gudivada, about twenty miles from the important town
of Masulipatam, may be taken as a good specimen of a
well-to-do village in a prosperous district, and the
ceremonies prevailing there are a fair sample of the
cult of the village deities in these parts.

The name of the village deity at Gudivada is
Pallalamma. Her image is the figure of a woman
with four arms, and a leopard's head under her right
foot, carved in bas-relief on a flat stone about three
feet high, standing in an open compound, surrounded
by a low stone wall. The pujari, who is a Sudra,
gave me a full account of the rites and ceremonies.
Weekly offerings are made every Sunday, when the
pujari washes the image with water and soap-nut
seeds early in the morning, and smears it with turmeric

WORSHIP IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY 55

and kunkuma, offers incense, breaks a cocoanut, and
cooks and presents to the image about a seer of rice,
which he afterwards eats himself. The rice is provided
daily by the villagers. Occasionally fowls and sheep
are offered on the Sunday by villagers who have made
vows in time of sickness or other misfortunes. When
a sheep is sacrificed, it is first purified by washing. The
animal is simply killed in front of the image by a Madiga,
who cuts off its head with a large chopper. The
blood is allowed to flow on the ground and nothing
special is done with it. The head becomes the per
quisite of the pujari, and the offerer takes away the
carcass for a feast in his house. In many villages,
both in the Telugu and Tamil districts, water is poured
over the sheep's back to see whether it shivers. If
it shivers, it is a sign that the goddess has accepted it.1
Where the people are economical, they keep on pouring
water till it does shiver, to avoid the expense of pro
viding a second victim, but, wrhere they are more
scrupulous, if it does not shiver, it is taken as a sign that
the goddess will not accept it and it is taken away.

A public festival is held whenever an epidemic
breaks out. The headman of the village then gets a
new earthenware pot, besmears it with turmeric and
kunkuma and puts inside some clay bracelets, some
necklaces, and ear-rings, three pieces of charcoal, three
pieces of turmeric, three pieces of incense, a piece
of dried cocoanut, a woman's cloth, and two annas'
worth of coppers — a strange collection of miscellaneous
charms and offerings. The pot is then hung up in a
tree near the image, as a pledge that, if the epidemic
disappears, the people will celebrate a festival.

When it does disappear, a thatched shed of palmyra
leaves is built near the image, and a special image of
clay, adorned with turmeric and kunkuma, is put inside,
and beneath it an earthen pot filled with buttermilk and
boiled rice. This pot is also smeared with turmeric and

1 For this widespread superstition see Sir Alfred Lyall,
Asiatic St^^dies, i, 19. Cf. pp. 63, 68, 69, 73, 99, below.

56 THE VILLAGE GODvS OF SOUTH INDIA

kunkuma, adorned with margosa leaves, covered with an
earthenware saucer, and carried in procession through
the village during the day, to the exhilarating sound of
pipes, horns, and tom-toms, by the village potter, who
takes the rice and buttermilk for his perquisite and
renews it every morning of the festival at the public
expense. The duration of the festival depends on the
amount of the subscriptions, but it always lasts for an
odd number of days, excluding all numbers with a seven
in them, e.g. 7, 17, 27, etc. During the night the barbers
of the village chant the praises of the goddess, and the
Madigas beat tom-toms near the image.

On the night before the day appointed for the
offering of animal sacrifices by the villagers, a male
buffalo, called Devara Potu, i.e. devoted to the deity,
is sacrificed on behalf of the whole village. First, the
buffalo is washed with water, smeared with yellow
turmeric and red kunkuma, and then garlanded with
flowers and the leaves of the sacred margosa tree. It
is brought before the image ; and a Madiga cuts off its
head, if possible at one blow, over a heap of boiled
rice, which becomes soaked with the blood. The right
foreleg is then cut off and placed crosswise in its
mouth, according to the widespread custom prevailing
in South India, the fat of the entrails is smeared over
the eyes and forehead, and the head is placed in front
of the image. A lighted lamp is placed, not as in the
other villages on the head itself, but on the heap of
rice soaked with blood. This rice is then put into a
basket ; and a Madiga, the village vctty or sweeper,
carries it round the site of the village, sprinkling it on
the ground as he goes. The whole village goes with
him, but there is no music or tom-toms. The people
shout out as they go "Poli! Poli! " i.e. "Food! Food!"
and clap their hands and wave their sticks above their
heads to keep off the evil spirits. The rice offered to
the goddess, but not soaked with blood, is then distri
buted to the people. What spirits the rice soaked in
blood is supposed to feed is not clear, but the object of
sprinkling the blood is evidently to ward off evil spirits

WORSHIP IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY 57

and prevent them from coming near the village, and
apparently the present idea is that they will be satiated
with rice and blood and not want to do any mischief.
The original idea was possibly quite different ; but this
seems to be the intention of the ceremony in modern
times.

On the next day, early in the morning, the clay
image and the pot are washed and smeared afresh with
turmeric and kunkuma. Incense and boiled rice are
then offered as on other days, and the pot is taken in
procession round the village. When this has been
done, about midday, each householder brings his offer
ing of boiled rice, cakes, fruits and flowers, and, in
addition, the village as a whole contributes about two
hundred or more seers of rice, which is boiled near the
pandal. All these offerings are placed in a heap before
the image. Then, first, a sheep or a buffalo is offered
on behalf of the whole village. Having been duly
washed, and smeared with turmeric and kunkuma, and
decorated with margosa leaves, its head is cut off by a
Madiga. The blood is allowed to flow on the ground,
and some loose earth is thrown upon it to cover it up.
The head is offered to the image by the headman of the
village. After this various householders, even Brah-
mans and Bunniahs, bring animals for sacrifice. All are
killed by a Madiga, and then the heads are all presented
and placed in a heap before the goddess. Sometimes
an extraordinary number of animals is sacrificed on occa
sions of this kind, as many as a thousand sheep on a
single day. In a village like Gudivada the number of
victims is, of course, far less. The question of prece
dence in the offering of victims constantly gives rise to
quarrels among the leading villagers. When I was
once visiting Gudivada, there was a case pending be
fore the tahsildar, i.e. the sub-divisional magistrate,
between a zamindar, landowner, and a village munsiff,
i.e. a village magistrate, about this knotty point. The
heads are taken away by the pujaris, potters, washer
men, barbers, Malas and Madigas, and others who take
any official part in the sacrifice. The carcasses of the

58 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

private sacrifices are taken away by the offerers, and
that of the public victim belongs to the headman of the
village. The rice, fruit, etc., are distributed among the
various officials. The function lasts from about ten a.m.
to five p.m.

In the evening, a cart is brought to the image with
nine pointed stakes standing upright in it, two at each
of the four corners and one in the centre : on each stake
a young pig, a lamb, or a fowl is impaled alive. A
Mala, called a Pambala, i.e. hereditary priest, then sits
in the cart dressed in female attire, holding in his hand
the clay image of the goddess which was made for the
festival. The cart is dragged with ropes to the extreme
boundary of the village lands, and both cart and ropes
are left beyond the boundary. The Pambalas take away
the animals, which all die during the procession, as
their share of the offerings.

Living animals impaled in many villages. This
cruel ceremony of impaling live animals is quite
common in the eastern part of the Telugu country,1
and I have come across it in many villages that I
have visited. The Rev. F. N. Alexander, the veteran
C.M.S. missionary, who lived over fifty years at
Ellore, told me that he witnessed it in the town
of Ellore the first year that he went there, and wrote
a letter to the Madras Mail describing it. As a result
of his letter, the practice was forbidden by the
Government. So now at Ellore the animals are tied on
to the stakes without being impaled ; but in many
villages near Ellore the custom still survives of impaling
the unfortunate animals alive. Sometimes there are
only four stakes on the cart, sometimes five, and some
times more. It is not often that there are as many as
nine. In one of the villages of the Kurnool district, I
found that a similar barbarity was practised in connexion
with the hook-swinging ceremony. On the fifth day of
the festival in honour of Ahkalamma, a large car is
constructed, with an arrangement of poles projecting

> Cf. pp. 59, 65, 69

WORSHIP IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY 59

about 20 feet in the air. A sheep is then suspended
from the pole by iron hooks fastened through the
muscles of its back and a band round its middle, and
swung round and round. Two or three of the older men
in the village said that they had often seen men swing
like this with iron hooks fastened into their backs,1 and
that it did not hurt. As soon as the sheep is swung
up, buffaloes, sheep and goats are sacrificed, and the
car is then dragged in procession through the village.

A cruel pig sacrifice. Sometimes, when there is
cattle disease, a pig is buried up to its neck at the
boundary of the village, a heap of boiled rice is deposited
near the spot, and then all the cattle of the village are
driven over the unhappy pig.2 It is not the custom at
Gudivada to sprinkle anything on the cattle as they pass
over the poor animal, as is done elsewhere.

There is a remarkable parallel to this form of sacrifice
in a description quoted by Mr. E. Thurston, in his
Ethnographical Notes in Southern India,3 of an ancient
custom among the Lambadis, a wandering tribe of
South India :

" In former times, the Lambadis, before setting out on a
journey, used to procure a little child and bury it in the ground
up to its shoulders, and then drive their loaded bullocks over
the unfortunate victim. In proportion to the bullocks thoroughly
trampling the child to death, so their belief in a successful
journey increased."

It is possible that this custom of driving the cattle
over the head of a buried pig may be connected with
the worship of an agricultural goddess, since in ancient
Greece the pig was sacred to agricultural deities, e.g.
Aphrodite, Adonis, and Demeter ; but it may also be
a survival of some former custom of infanticide or
human sacrifice such as prevailed among the Lambadis.

An old man in the Kurnool district once described
to me the account that he had received from his fore-

1 This is the practice in the Hindu dola-jatra, swing-festival,
celebrated in honour of Durga, the wife of Siva. Cf. pp. 61, 76,
82, 83.

1 Seep. 53, 60. » P. 507.

60 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

fathers of the ceremonies observed when founding
a new village. An auspicious site is selected and an
auspicious day, and then in the centre of the site is dug
a large hole, in which are placed different kinds of
grain, small pieces of the five metals, gold, silver,
copper, iron, and lead, and a large stone, called boddu-
rayee, i.e. navel-stone, standing about three and a half
feet above the ground, very like the ordinary boundary
stones seen in the fields. And then, at the entrance
of the village, in the centre of the main street, where
most of the cattle pass in and out on their way to and
from the fields, they dig another hole and bury a pig
alive. This ceremony would be quite consistent with
either of the explanations suggested as to the origin
of pig-burying. The pig may be buried at the
entrance to the village as the emblem of fertility and
strength, to secure the prosperity of the agricultural
community, the fertility of the fields, and the health
and fecundity of the cattle. Or it may equally be
a substitute for an original human sacrifice. The
idea that a new building or institution must be inaugu
rated by the sacrifice of a human life is very common
all over India. To this day there is often a panic
among the villagers who live near the banks of a
river where a bridge is about to be built, because
they think that one or more of their babies are sure
to be required to bury under the foundations of the
first pier. On one of my visits to Kalasapad, in the
Cuddapah district, the missionary told me that, when
a new ward was opened for their local mission dis
pensary, no one would go into it, because the people
imagined that the first to go in would be the needful
sacrifice. Their fears were allayed by a religious
service at the opening of the ward ; but had it been a
Hindu hospital, probably a goat or a sheep would have
been killed as a substitute for the human victim.

The idea of substitution, too, is quite common in
India. In the hook-swinging ceremony described above,1

1 P. 59.

WORSHIP IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY 61

it is common both in the Telugu and Tamil districts to
substitute a sheep for a man, and to fasten the iron
hooks in the muscles of its back.

Alleged infanticide among Todas. I have been told
that, among the Todas of the Nilgiri Hills, it was
formerly the custom to place female children, whom it
was not desired to rear, on the ground at the entrance of
the mund, i.e. a group of huts, and drive buffaloes
over them. If they survived this ordeal, they were
allowed to live.

It is only fair to add that the Todas themselves deny
that this custom ever existed. To quote Mr. Thurston
again :*

" The practice of infanticide, as it prevailed among the Todas
of the Nilgiris, is best summed up in the words of an aged Toda
during an interview with Colonel Marshall (A Phrenologist
amongst the Todas, 1873): ' I was a little boy when Mr. Sullivan
(the first English pioneer of the Nilgiris) visited these moun
tains. In those days it was the custom to kill children, but the
practice has long died out, and now one never hears of it. I
don't know whether it was wrong or not to kill them, but we
were very poor, and could not support our children. Now every
one has a mantle (putkfdi), but formerly there was only one for
the whole family. We did not kill them to please any god, but
because it was our custom. The mother never nursed the child,
and the parents did not kill it. Do you think we could kill it
ourselves ? Those tell lies who say we laid it before the open
buffalo-pen so that it might be run over and killed by the animals.
We never did such things, and it is all nonsense that we drowned
it in buffalo's milk. Boys were never killed — only girls ; not
those who were sickly and deformed — that would be a sin ; but,
when we had one girl, or in some families two girls, those that
followed were killed. An old woman (kelachi) used to take the
child immediately it was born, and close its nostrils, ears and
mouth with a cloth thus (here pantomimic action). It would
shortly droop its head, and go to sleep. We then buried it in
the ground. The kelachi got a present of four annas (4d.) for
the deed.' The old man's remark about the cattle-pen refers to
the Malagasy custom of placing a new-born child at the entrance
of a cattle-pen, and then driving the cattle over it, to see whether
they would trample on it or not."

Masulipatam. At Masulipatam, where ceremonies
are performed very similar to those at Gudivada

1 Op. cit., p. 507.

62 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

during an epidemic, a washerman carries the earthen
ware pot, half full of buttermilk and adorned with
margosa leaves, round the village to the sound of tom
toms. As it goes round, the washerman stops at each
house and the wife comes out and pours water beside
the pot on the ground and does reverence to the pot,
imploring the goddess not to let any evil spirit come to
the house ; and then she puts more rice and buttermilk
into it. When it is full, it is taken back to the shrine
and another brought in its place. As this procession
continues for fifteen days, the accumulation of rice and
buttermilk must be considerable. It is ultimately
consumed by the washermen, potters, Malas and
Madigas, who take part in the festival. The real
sacrifice begins on the sixteenth day and lasts for a
month. Cotton-thread and all the rice and buttermilk
collected from the villagers are offered to the image.
The images themselves are smeared with turmeric, and
dots of kunkuma are put on them, and finally on the last
day a male buffalo, called Devara-Potu, i.e. devoted to
the goddess, is brought before the image and its head
cut off by the head Madiga of the town. The blood is
caught in a vessel and sprinkled over some boiled rice,
and then the head, with the right foreleg in the mouth,
is placed before the shrine on a flat wicker basket, with
the rice and blood on another basket just below it. A
lighted lamp is placed on the head, and then another
Madiga carries it on his own head round the village,
with a new cloth dipped in the blood of the victim tied
round his neck. This is regarded here and elsewhere
as a very inauspicious and dangerous office ; and the
headman of the village has to offer considerable
inducements to persuade a Madiga to undertake it.
Ropes are tied round his body and arms and held
fast by men walking behind him, as he goes round,
to prevent his being carried off by evil spirits, and
limes are cut in half and thrown into the air, so that
the demons may catch at them instead of at the man.
It is believed that gigantic demons sit on the tops of tall
trees ready to swoop down and carry him away, in

WORSHIP IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY 63

order to get the rice and the buffalo's head. The idea
of carrying the head and rice round a village, so the
people said, is to draw a kind of cordon on every side
of it and prevent the entrance of the evil spirits.
Should any one in the town refuse to subscribe for the
festival, his house is omitted from the procession, and
left to the tender mercies of the devils. This proces
sion is called bali haranam j1 and in this district mams,
rent-free lands, are held from Government by certain
families of Madigas for performing it. Besides the
buffalo, large numbers of sheep and goats and fowls are
sacrificed, each householder giving at least one animal.
The head Madiga who kills the animals takes the carcass
and distributes the flesh among the members of his
family. Often cases come into the courts to decide
who has the right to kill them. As the sacrifice cannot
wait for the tedious processes of the law, the elders of
the village settle the question at once, pending an
appeal to the courts. But in the town of Masulipatam, a
Madiga is specially licensed by the Municipality for the
purpose, and all disputes are avoided.

Cocanada. At Cocanada there is only one Grama-
Devata, Nukalamma (from Nuku, a Tamil word, mean
ing "to beat") ; but she is very ill-tempered, they
told me, and gives much trouble. Curiously enough,
the present pujan is a woman of the fisherman caste.
The office was hereditary in her family and she is
the only surviving member of it. A male relative
acts as deputy-pujari. Offerings are made to Nuka
lamma every day, doubtless on account of her temper.
One custom I found observed here, which is not un
common in these parts. When a victim's head has
been cut off, it is put before the shrine and water poured
on it. The offerer then waits to see whether the
mouth opens. If it does, it is a sign that the sacrifice
is accepted.2 Another ceremony observed here is
significant and, doubtless, a relic of the primitive idea

1 Sanksrit for " presentation of the offering."

2 See p. 55 n. 1, above.

64 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

of sacrifice. As soon as the victim is killed, the
offerer dips his finger in the blood and puts it on his
own forehead.

The annual festival of this goddess lasts for a whole
month, ending on the New Year's day of the Telugu
calendar. During this festival the procession of pots
is observed with special ceremony. Six brass pots,
each about two feet high, with the figure of a cobra
springing from below the neck and rising over the
mouth of the pot, are draped with women's cloths
and carried round the town on men's head. Nothing
is put inside them, but, as they go round, the women
of each house come out, pour water on the feet of the
bearers, and make offerings of rice and fruit. These are
solemnly presented to the pots by the bearers, and some
powder is applied to the two small feet that project
at the base of each pot, and form a sort of frame fitting
on the bearer's head. The bearer then takes a little
of the turmeric powder, that is already on the foot
of the pot, and puts it into the dish in which the offering
was brought, with a few margosa leaves from a bundle
that he carries with him. The dish is returned to the
woman who offered the gifts, which become the property
of the pujari. The women and children of the family
mark their foreheads with the turmeric, and put the
margosa leaves in their hair. This is called Antma-
vari-Prasadam* As they go round, the pujaris dance
to the sound of tom-toms.

On the last day of the festival, when a buffalo is
sacrificed, a curious ceremony takes place which is
said to be very common in the villages of this district.
After the head is cut off by the vetty,2 who is a
Madiga, the blood is collected in a basin and nine
kinds of grain and gram3 are put into it. The basin
is then put before the idol inside the shrine, and the

1 The turmeric and the margosa leaves are a gift of grace
(Sanskrit Prasada, grace) from the goddess. Food and water
from the table of a Hindu god given to the worshippers in the
temple are called prasada .

2 See above p. 56. ' Gram is coarse lentils.

WORSHIP IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY 65

doors of the shrine are kept shut^for three days. On
the fourth day the doors are opened, the coagulated
mass of blood, grain, and gram is carefully washed,
and the grain and gram are separated on the ground
behind the shrine, in order to see which of the various
kinds of grain has sprouted. All the ryots eagerly
assemble to watch the result, and whichever is found
to have sprouted, is regarded as marked out by the
goddess as the right kind of grain to sow that year.
This method of determining which crop to sow is
common in both the Godavari and Masulipatam districts.
In these sacrifices to Nukalamma, too, the application
of the blood is specially noticeable. As soon as the
victim is killed, a small quantity of the blood is smeared
on the sides of the door-posts of the shrine ; the
deputy-pujari dips his finger in the blood and applies it
to his forehead ; then all the other people present
do the same ; and afterwards some boiled rice and some
turmeric powder are mixed with the blood, and a little
of the mixture is sprinkled on the head of the Madiga
who holds the basin to catch the blood.

When an epidemic of cholera breaks out, another
goddess, called Maridiamma, is installed in the place of
the Nukalamma. A log of margosa wood, about three
feet high and six inches in diameter, is cut and roughly
carved at the top into the shape of a head, and then
fixed in the ground with a pandal of leaves and cloths
over it. Then the procession of the earthen pot half
filled with buttermilk and rice is conducted, very much
in the same way as at Masulipatam,1 every day till the
epidemic subsides. After that, some ten or twelve
small carts are made, about six feet square, with three
pointed stakes standing up on each side, on which live
animals are impaled, as in other parts of the Telugu
country.2 The carts are partly filled with boiled rice
and curry stuff prepared at the shrine, the blood of the
victims sacrificed being poured over the rice. I was
told that live animals were only impaled if a cart did

1 See p. 62 above, 3 See p. 58 above.

66 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

not move properly as it was dragged to the boundary,
since that is regarded as a sign that the goddess is angry
and needs to be appeased.

Ellore, The number of victims slaughtered at some
of these festivals is enormous. At Ellore, which is a
town of considerable size and importance, I was told
that at the annual festival of Mahalakshmi about a
a thousand animals are killed in one day, rich people
sending as many as twenty or thirty. The blood then
flows down into the fields behind the place of sacrifice
in a regular flood, and carts full of sand are brought to
cover up what remains on the spot. The heads are
piled up in a heap about fifteen feet high in front of the
shrine, and a large earthen basin about one-and-a-half
feet in diameter is then filled with gingelly oil and put on
the top of the heap, a thick cotton wick being placed in
the basin and lighted. The animals are all worshipped
with the usual namaskaram, i.e. folded hands raised to
the forehead, before they are killed. This slaughter of
victims goes on all day.

At midnight about twenty or twenty-five buffaloes
are sacrificed. Their heads are cut off by a Madiga
pujari and with their carcasses are thrown upon large
heaps of rice which have been presented to the goddess,
till the rice is soaked with blood.

The subsequent ceremonies illustrate again the
varieties of local custom. The rice is collected in about
ten or fifteen large baskets, and, instead of being carried
by a Madiga, is carried on a large cart drawn by buffaloes
or bullocks, with the Madiga pujari seated on it. As
the cart moves along, Madigas sprinkle the rice on the
streets and on the walls of the houses shouting " Poli !
Poli ! " ("Food! Food ! "). A large body of men of
different castes, 6udras, Kommas, andOutcastes, go with
the procession : but only the Madigas and Malas (the two
sections of the Outcastes) shout "Poli," the rest follow
ing in silence. They have only two or three torches to
show them the way, and no tom-toms nor music.
Apparently the idea is that, if they make a noise or
display a blaze of light, they will attract the evil spirits,

WORSHIP IN THE TELUGU COUNTRY 67

who will swoop down on them and do them some injury;
though in other villages it is supposed that a great deal
of noise and flourishing of sticks will keep the evil
spirits at bay. Before this procession starts, the heads
of the buffaloes are placed in front of the shrine, with
the right foreleg in the mouth, the fat from the
entrails smeared about half an inch thick over the
whole face, and a large earthen lamp on the top of each
head. The Pambalas1 play tom-toms and chant a long
story about Garigamma till daybreak. About eight a.m.
they put the buffalo heads with the lighted lamps upon
them into separate baskets ; and these are carried in
procession through the town to the sound of tom-toms.
All castes follow, shouting and singing. In former
times, I was told, there was a good deal of fighting and
disturbance during this procession, but now the police
maintain order. When the procession arrives at the
municipal limits, the heads are thrown over the
boundary, and left there. The people then all bathe in
the canal and return home.

On the last day of the festival, which, I may remark,
lasts for about three months, a small cart is made of
margosa wood and a stake is fixed at each of the four
corners. A pig and a fowl are tied to each stake, while
a fruit, called dubakaya, is impaled on it instead of the
animal. A yellow cloth, sprinkled with the blood of
the buffaloes, is tied round the sides of the cart, and
some margosa leaves are tied round the cloth. A
Pambala sits on the cart, to which are fastened two
large ropes, each about 200 yards long. Then men of
all castes, without distinction, lay hold of the ropes and
drag the cart round the town to the sound of tom-toms
and music. Finally it is brought outside the municipal
limits and left there, the Outcastes taking away the
animals and fruits.

Sometimes, I was told, animals are sacrificed to
Gahgamma by the people in Ellore in the courtyards
of their own houses. They then clean the wall of

See p. 58 above.

68 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

the house outside with cow-dung and make three
horizontal lines with kunkuma (a red paste of turmeric
and lime), with a dot above and below, and a semi
circle on the right side with a dot in the middle, thus:—

The symbol on the right represents the sun and moon:
that on the left is the Saivite sectarian mark. They
sacrifice to these symbols sheep, goats, and fowls. It
is curious that, in these private sacrifices at home, they
pour water on the sheep and goats to see whether they
shiver, as a sign of acceptance,1 though this is not done
in the public sacrifices at Ellore.

Dharmaja-Gudem, near Ellore, At a village called
Dharmaja-Gudem, about sixteen miles from Ellore,
while the main features of the festivals are the same
as those found elsewhere, there are two or three
peculiarities, which deserve notice. The ordinary
grama-devatas of the village are Ellaramma, Gangamma,
Mutyalamma, and Ravelamma, who are represented by
four stone pillars about six feet high, with figures of
women carved on them, standing in an open field on the
outskirts of the village : but when an epidemic breaks
out, Mutyalamma, Gangamma, Ankamma and Mahalaksh-
miamma are the deities propitiated, and special images
are made of them. Those of the first three are made of
clay, but that of Mahalakshmiamma is made of turmeric
kneaded into a paste. Then, again, it is noticeable
that a Brahman acts as pujari of Mahalakshmi, a
washerman as pujari of Gangamma, and a potter as
pujari of Ankamma. The Brahman pujari presides
over the worship for the greater part of the festival,
which lasts for about three months, and during that
time the people come almost every day and offer
flowers, fruits, cocoanuts, camphor and incense, but no
animnl sacrifices. All this time, too, some nautch-

1 See p. 55 above,

WORSHIP IN THE TELJGU COUNTRY 69

girls come and dance in a booth erected in front of the
image and work themselves up into a state of frenzy,
during which they are supposed to be inspired by the
deities, and utter oracles to the worshippers. When
the epidemic begins to abate, the Brahman pujari
closes his part of the proceedings and departs.

Then, on that afternoon and evening, animal sacri
fices are offered under the booth. On the first animal
killed, which is generally a goat, water is poured from
a brass vessel, to see if it shivers.1 If it does, it is
taken as a good omen that the goddess is propitiated
and the disease will disappear. Then other animals are
brought and, in accordance with a very common division
of functions in the Telugu country, a washerman kills
the sheep, goats, and fowls, and a Madiga the buffaloes.
The heads of the sheep and goats, as well as of the
buffaloes, have the right forelegs put crosswise in the
mouths, the faces smeared with fat from the entrails,
and a lighted lamp placed above them. The blood is
caught in a basket full of boiled rice, and the rice and
blood are sprinkled round the village, while a Madiga
carries on his own head the head of a buffalo exactly as
is done elsewhere. Here, too, great care is taken to
prevent any person from another village taking away
any of the rice and blood, lest the other village should
get all the benefit of the sacrifice, and evils of all kinds
descend on the unhappy villagers who have offered it.
The ceremony of impaling live animals on stakes fixed
round a wooden car,2 and dragging them off to the
boundary of the village is also practised here,

Bhimadole, near Ellore. At another village, called
Bhimadole, about twenty miles from Ellore, I came
across one of the few instances I have met with of any
direct connexion between the harvest and the worship
of a village goddess. There is an annual festival held
there about harvest time, in November or December,
lasting one day, which is always a Tuesday. About half
a ton of rice is boiled in the middle of the village, taken

1 See page 55. 2 See p. 58.

70 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

to the shrine and presented in a heap before the image,
with a lighted lamp on the top of it, made of rice flour
kneaded into a paste, and holding about one pint of oil.1
Some toddy is poured on the ground to the east of the
rice by the washerman ; incense and camphor are burnt ;
while the people make namaskaram (salutation with
folded hands raised to the forehead^ to the image. As
many as two hundred sheep and goats are then killed,
and fowls are brought by the poorer people. In this
festival, the rice soaked in the blood of the victims is
not sprinkled on the streets of the village nor over the
houses, but each ryot gives a handful of it to one of his
field servants (an Outcaste), who takes and sprinkles it
over his master's fields. Three handfuls of the crop
are cut on the same day to inaugurate the harvest. No
buffaloes are sacrificed during this festival.

On the other hand, when an epidemic breaks
out, there is a special festival, in which five or six buffaloes
are sacrificed as well as about three hundred sheep and
goats. The buffaloes are killed last of all. One special
buffalo, called Pcdda-Veta, great sacrifice, is reserved
to the end, and killed at about ten p.m. Nothing special
is done with the blood of the other buffaloes nor with that
of the sheep and goats, but the blood of the Pedda-Veta
is allowed to flow on to some of the rice, as soon as
the head is severed, and both head and carcass are
placed upon the rice heap. The head, as usual, has the
right foreleg put in the mouth, with fat smeared over
the face and a lighted lamp above it.

At about eleven p.m. the head is carried by aMala, not
by a Madiga in this village, on his own head three times
round the boundaries of the village site, and the rice
soaked in blood is sprinkled by the Malas on the ground,
as they go, and on any cattle they happen to meet,
accompanied by the same weird and excited procession
as elsewhere.

The illustration facing this page represents a shrine
of Poshamma, a goddess worshipped by the Malas. On
the top of the shrine stands an earthenware lamp.

1 Seep. 39.

PLATE IX

Pi. AT it X

KrTTANMKYAR

CHAPTER V

MODES OF WORSHIP IN THE CANARESE
COUNTRY

THE Canarese are closely allied ethnologically to the
Telugus, and we should naturally expect, therefore, to
find a close connexion between the ceremonies used by
the two peoples in the worship of their village god
desses, A brief account of the ceremonies used in
different parts of the Canarese country will show how
far this is actually the case.

Bellary District. In the Bellary district Durgamma,1
Sunkalamma, and Uramma are very commonly wor
shipped. Uramma means simply the village goddess,
and is equivalent to the general term grama-devata.
Her festival is not celebrated annually, but when there
is a specially good crop, or when cholera or plague
break out. The following account of it was given me
by an Asadi of a village near Bellary, and may be taken
as describing fairly the general type of such festivals
and sacrifices throughout the district.

We will suppose that cholera has broken out in the
village. The villagers then make vows to offer the
sacrifice if the epidemic ceases. The day appointed
for the festival is invariably a Tuesday, and on the
previous Tuesday a basin-shaped earthen lamp, filled
with oil and furnished with a stout cotton wick, is
placed in the house of the Reddy (village magistrate)
and kept lighted till the festival and all the ceremonies
are ended. The carpenter, also, prepares beforehand
a wooden image of the goddess and a small cart, while

1 Durga is one of the many names of Kali, the wife of £iva.

72 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

a pandal (booth) of leaves and cloths, with a raised
platform inside and festoons of flowers hung in front,
is made ready in an open space in the village. On the
appointed Tuesday a sheep or goat is first sacrificed at
the carpenter's house, and the carcass given to the
tali&ris (village servants, generally Boyas by caste).

The image is then put on the cart about sunset, and
taken by the villagers in procession to the booth. In
some villages the washerman lays clean cloths on the
ground, so that the men who carry the image from the
cart to the booth may not tread on the earth. Then the
people proceed to the house of the flower-seller, who is
by caste a Gira and generally a Liftg&yat1 by religion,
and bring thence a kind of cradle, made of pith and
flowers, together with a pot of toddy, a looking-glass,
some limes, and other articles used in worship. The
cradle and looking-glass are hung up in front of the
booth, and the other things are placed in front of the
image. A looking-glass, I was told, is considered very
auspicious, and is used by all castes in various religious
ceremonies. Next, the lighted lamp is brought in
procession from the Reddy's house and placed before
the image by some man belonging to the Reddy's family.
Four measures of boiled rice are then poured in a heap
before the image, while flowers, betel leaves, nuts,
plantains, and cocoanuts are offered, and camphor and
incense burnt.

When the preliminaries have been duly performed,
the buffalo, which, from the close of the last festival,
has been dedicated to the goddess and reserved for
sacrifice, is brought from the Outcaste quarters to the
pandal in solemn procession, the Asadis, some ten or
twelve in number, dancing before it and singing songs
in honour of the goddess. It has been kept the whole
day without food or water and is garlanded with flowers
and smeared with turmeric and red kunkuma. This

1 A South Indian Sivaite sect, named Lingayats, because
each wears a small Linga (Siva's phallic emblem) hung round
his neck in a reliquary.

WORSHIP IN THE CANARESE COUNTRY 73

buffalo is called Gauda-Kona or husband-buffalo, and,
according to the traditional story, represents the Out-
caste husband who pretended to be a Brahman and
married the Brahman girl, now worshipped as Uramma.
A fresh buffalo is always dedicated immediately after
the festival, lest the goddess should be left a widow.
When it arrives at the pandal, it is laid on its side upon
the ground and its head is cut off by one of the Madigas
with the sacrificial chopper. Its neck is placed over a
small pit, which has been dug to receive the blood, and
the entrails are taken out and placed in the pit with the
blood. The right leg is then cut off below the knee and
put cross-wise in the mouth, some fat from the entrails
is placed on the forehead and a small earthenware lamp,
about as large as a man's two hands, with a wick as
thick as his thumb, is placed on the fat and kept there
lighted, till the festival is over. Some of the blood and
entrails are then mixed with some boiled rice and placed
in a new basket, which a Madiga, stripped naked, places
on his head and takes round the boundary of the village
fields, accompanied by a washerman carrying a torch,
and followed by a few of the villagers. He sprinkles
the rice, blood, and entrails all round the boundary.
The greatest care is taken to see that none of the blood
from the pit in front of the pandal, where the buffalo
was killed, is taken away by any one from another
village, as they believe that in that case all the benefits
of the sacrifice would be transferred to the other village.
In former days men who stealthily took away the blood
were chased and murdered. As this cannot be done
under British rule, a strict patrol is kept all round the
place where the blood lies, and no one from any other
village is allowed to loiter near the spot.

Next day, Wednesday, about four p.m., villagers, who
have made vows, bring sheep for sacrifice and offerings
of boiled rice, fruits, cocoanuts, etc., with incense and
camphor. I was told that fowls were not offered to
Uramma. After the sheep has been killed, the head
is cut off and water is poured on the nose ; if the
mouth opens, it is regarded as a good omen. The

74 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

carcasses are taken away by the offerers to their own
homes as a feast for the family. The heads are all put
together and distributed to those of the village artisans
and officials who are meat-eaters.

On Thursday, about four p.m., the flesh of the buffalo,
which was sacrificed on Tuesday evening and must be
by this time rather high, is cooked in front of the
pandal, and part of it is first offered to the goddess,
with some boiled rice, on five separate leaves. The
Asadis make the offering with songs and dances, the
breaking of coccanuts, and burning of incense and
camphor, and prostrations on the ground, shasthan-
gam. For this part of their service they receive
twenty pies (about Ifcl.), four pies for each leaf, not
an extravagant sum. Then they take the five leaves
away and eat the flesh and rice at some distance from
the pandal, where it was cooked. These offerings
to the goddess must be eaten on the spot, and are not
allowed to be taken home. The rest of the flesh is
given to the Outcastes and taliaris, who cook and
eat some of it on the spot and take away the remainder.
After sunset the goddess is put on the wooden cart
and dragged in procession to the boundary of the
village, an Asadi walking in the front and carry
ing on his head the head of the buffalo. When they
come to the limit of the village lands, they leave the
image on their own side of the boundary and there it
stays. This ceremony ends the festival.

Bellary Town. Somewhat similar festivals are held
periodically to propitiate Sunkalamma, the goddess of
small-pox and measles, and Maramma, the goddess of
cholera. In the town of Bellary there is a shrine of
Durgamma1 which consists only of an ant-hill, with a
plain stone shrine about thirty feet long, six deep and
eight or ten high built over it. The story goes that an
old woman many years ago was worshipping an image
of Durgamma on this spot, when the goddess appeared
to her and said that she was Durgamma of Bellary, that

1 See p. 71, n. 1, above.

WORSHIP IN THE CANARESE COUNTRY 75

she lived in the ant-hill, and ought to be worshipped
there. The ant-hill grew in seize in the course of years
and a shrine was built. The present pujari, who is a
Golla or milkman by caste, says that in the time of his
father, about forty years ago, a large snake lived in the
ruined wall behind the shrine, and used to come out and
eat eggs and milk placed for it before the shrine.
Apparently it very rarely makes its appearance now.

There is an annual festival to this goddess in
Bellary, when male buffaloes, sheep, goats, and fowls
are offered in sacrifice. When a buffalo is sacrificed,
the right leg is, as usual, cut off and placed in its
mouth, and fat is smeared over its forehead, with a
lighted lamp on the top. Then the offerer stands with
folded hands in front of the goddess asking for a boon ;
and, if at that time the month of the buffalo opens, he
thinks that his prayer has been granted ; otherwise he
goes away disappointed. The tahsildar of Bellary
conjectured that the practice of putting the right foreleg
in the mouth was originally connected with this last
ceremony, its object being to prevent rigor mortis set
ting in at once, and to keep the mouth open and the jaws
twitching, so as to deceive the superstitious. But this
does not seem to be a likely explanation of so wide
spread a custom. The skins of the buffaloes offered in
sacrifice are used for the drums employed in worship,
and the carcasses are given to the Outcastes and taliaris
in the vicinity of the shrine. People who do not
approve of the slaughter of animals cut off the right
ear of a goat or sheep and, after carrying it round the
temple, offer it to the pujari. The blood of animals
offered in sacrifice in Bellary is not sprinkled round
either the shrine or the town. People who offer animal
sacrifices also offer boiled rice with them. The rice is
heaped on leaves in front of the shrine, turmeric and
kunkuma are sprinkled over it, and then it is distributed
to the people present. Tuesdays and Fridays are
regarded as specially suitable days for the worship of
this deity and are observed as days of fasting by the
pujaris of the shrine.

76 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

About February every year the hook-swinging fes
tival is celebrated in connexion with the worship of
Durgamma.1 Originally devotees swung from the top
of a high pole by hooks fastened through the muscles of
their backs ; but in these days only an effigy is swung
from the pole. It is quite common, however, for
devotees to come to the shrine with silver pins fastened
through their cheeks. These pins are about six inches
long, and rectangular in shape. They are thrust through
both cheeks, and then fastened, just like a safety-pin.
The devotee comes to the temple with his cheeks pierced
in this fashion, and with a lighted lamp in a brass dish
on his head. On his arrival before the shrine, the lamp
is placed on the ground, and the pin removed and offered
to the goddess. I was told that the object of this cere
mony is to enable the devotee to come to the shrine
with a concentrated mind !

It was also formerly the custom for women to come
to the shrine clad only in twigs of the margosa tree,
prostrate themselves before the goddess, and then
resume their normal clothing. But this is now only
done by children, the grown-up women putting the
margosa branches over a cloth wrapped round their
loins.

The ceremonies performed in the Mysore State,
further south, do not materially differ from those already
described, though they seem in some places to have
been greatly influenced by sun-worship.

Bangalore. In Bangalore there is a shrine of
Mahesvaramma, at a village near the Maharajah's palace.
The popularity of the shrine seems to have declined in
recent years, but daily offerings of fruit and flowers,
camphor and incense are still made, and on Tuesdays
and Fridays people sometimes bring fowls and sheep to
offer to the goddess. When there has been illness in a
house, or when, for some other reason, special vows
have been made, women often come to the shrine with
a silver safety-pin thrust through their cheeks, as is

1 See p. 59, n. 1, above.

PLATE XI

PLATE XII

INTKRIOR OF SHRINE OF I'LAGI! E-AM M A . BANGALORE

77

WORSHIP IN THE CANARESE COUNTRY 77

the custom for men at Bellary. They offer fruit and
flowers, prostrate themselves on the ground before the
image, then take out the pin and present it to the
goddess.

In front of the shrine, in an open space across the
road, about fifteen yards off, stands a block of granite
like a thick milestone rounded above, with a small
hollow on the top, and a female figure without
arms, representing Doddamma, the sister and com
panion of Mahesvaramma. The pujari pours the
curds they bring into the hollow on the top of the
stone, and smears the image with turmeric and kun-
kuma, puts a garland round the stone and breaks a
cocoanut before it. Doddamma seems to be treated as
a younger sister of the goddess, whom it is politic to
propitiate, though with inferior honours.

An annual festival is held in this village after
harvest. A special clay image is made by the gold
smith from the mud of the village tank and a canopy
is erected in a spot where four lanes meet, and decorated
with tinsel and flowers. The goldsmith takes the image
from his house, and deposits it beneath the canopy.
The festival lasts three days. On the first day the
proceedings begin at about two p.m., the washerman
acting as pujari. He is given about two seers of rice,
which he boils, and at about five p.m. brings and spreads
before the image. Then he pours curds and turmeric
over the image, probably to avert the evil eye, and
prostrates himself. The villagers next bring rice,
fruits, flowers, incense and camphor, and firati, i.e,
small lamps made of rice-flour paste, each with oil in it
and a lighted wick. These are very commonly used in
the Canarese country. One arati is waved by the head
of each household before the clay image, another before
the shrine of Mahesvaramma, another before a shrine
of Munesvara about two furlongs off, and a fourth at
home to his own household deity. During these
ceremonies music is played, and tom-toms are sounded
without ceasing. After this ceremony any Sudras, who
have made vows, kill sheep and fowls in their own

78 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

homes and then feast on them, while the women pierce
their cheeks with silver pins, and go to worship at the
shrine of Mahesvaramma. At about nine p.m. the Madi
gas, who are esteemed the left-hand section of the Out-
castes, come and sacrifice a male buffalo, called devara
kona, i.e. consecrated buffalo, which has been bought by
subscription and left to roam free about the village
under the charge of the Toti, or village watchman. On
the day of the sacrifice it is brought before the image,
and the Toti cuts off its head with the sacrificial
chopper. The right foreleg is also cut off and put
crosswise in the mouth, and the head is then put before
the image with an earthen lamp alight on the top of it.
The blood is cleaned up by the sweepers at once, to
allow the other villagers to approach the spot ; but the
head remains there facing the image till the festival is
over. The Madigas take away the carcass and hold a
feast in their quarter of the village.

On the second day there are no public offerings, but
each household makes a feast and feeds as many people
as it can. On the third day there is, first, a procession
of the image of Mahesvaramma, seated on her wooden
horse, and that of Munesvara from the neighbouring
shrine, round the village. They stop at each house,
and the people offer fruits and flowers but no animals.

At about five p.m. the washerman takes up the clay
image of the grama-devata, goes with it in procession
to the tank, accompanied by all the people, to the
sound of pipes and tom-toms, walks into the tank about
knee-deep, and there deposits the image and leaves it.

Kempapura Agrahara. This is the common type
of festival held in honour of the grama-devata in all the
villages round about Bangalore, whatever special deity
may be worshipped, allowing, of course, for the varia
tions of detail which are found everywhere. In one
small village with a big name, viz. Kempapura
Agrahara, where Pujamma is worshipped, the pujari of
the shrine has nothing to do with the buffalo sacrifice
during the annual festival. That ceremony is per
formed by the Madigas alone. The blood of this victim

WORSHIP IN THE CANARESE COUNTRY 79

is mixed with some boiled rice in a large earthen pot,
and taken at night round the village by the Toti, and
sprinkled on the ground. The Madigas go with him
carrying torches and beating tom-toms. The object of
this ceremony is, as usual, to keep off evil spirits.

Yelahanka. Pujamma is especially the goddess of
the Madigas in these parts, and the buffalo sacrifice
forms an important part of the annual festival whenever
she is worshipped. At a group of villages some ten
miles from Bangalore, near Yelahanka, I found that she
was represented by no image, but by a small earthen
lamp, which is always kept lighted.

Shrine near Bangalore. At one shrine on the out
skirts of Bangalore, where there are seven god
desses, viz. Annamma, the presiding goddess, Chandes-
varamma, Mayesvaramma, Maramma (the goddess
of cholera), Udalamma (goddess of swollen necks),
Kokkalamma (goddess of coughs), and Sukhajamma
(goddess of small-pox and measles), the fire-walk
ing ceremony forms an important part of the annual
festival, which lasts for ten days. A trench is dug
in front of the shrine about thirty feet long, five
feet wide and one-and-a-half feet deep, and washed with
a solution of cow-dung, to purify it. About thirty seers
of boiled rice are then brought on the fifth day of the
festival, and offered to the goddess before the trench.
It is all put into the trench and some ten seers of curds
are poured over it and then distributed to the people,
who eat some on the spot and some at home. A cart
load of firewood is then spread over the trench, set
alight and left to burn for about three hours, till the
wood becomes a mass of red-hot embers. When all is
ready, the people assemble, and the pujari, whose turn
it is to conduct the worship, first bathes to purify
himself, and then, amid the deafening din of trumpets,
tom-toms, and cymbals, and the clapping of hands,
walks with bare feet slowly and deliberately over the
glowing embers the whole length of the trench towards
the shrine of the seven goddesses. After him about
thirty or forty women walk over the red-hot embers

80 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

with lighted aratis on their heads. Such is the power
of the goddess, the people told me, that no one is
injured. The pujari of the shrine declared positively
that the people put no oil nor anything else on their
feet when they walk over.

Mysore City. At Mysore City, where the fire- walking
ceremony is also performed, I asked three men who
had walked over the trench why they were not hurt,
and their reply was that people who were without sin
were never hurt ! I can only say that in this case their
faces sadly belied their characters.

The following account of the worship of village
deities in the City of Mysore, and the note on the
worship of village deities in the Canarese country
generally, was kindly given to me by the late Mr.
Ramakrishna Rao, then palace officer at Mysore :

The Maris of Mysore are said to be seven in
number, and all the seven are sisters :

(1) Bisal Mari (the sun);

(2) Goonal Mari;

(3) Kel Mari (the earthen pot);

(4) Yeeranagere Mari ;

(5) Hiridevathi (the eldest sister) ;

(6) Chammandamma ;

(7) Uttahnahaliamma.

Of the seven Maris, Hiridevathi is said to be the
eldest. Every year the Mari Jatra (i.e. festival) is
held, generally in the month of February. It lasts for
about four weeks, and consists of the following :

(1) Mari Saru;

(2) Mari Made ;

(3) Mari Sidi ;

(4) Kelammana Habba ;
each taking nearly a week's time.

(1) Mari Saru. On Sunday of the first week of
the Mari Jatra, at about six p.m., the people and pujaris,
called Toreyars, collect at a consecrated place in the
fort (the place now used is a little to the east of the
southern entrance to the palace), cook rice there, and
colour the cooked rice red with the blood of a sheep or

PLATE XIII

IMAGE OF Hf LIAMMA IN VILLAGE NEAR MYSORE CITY

PLATE XIV

1MAGK OF GODDESS, \VO KS H I I'l'K I) KSI'KC IALLV
BY THK GOLDSMITHS OF MYSORE CITY

WORSHIP IN THE CANARESE COUNTRY 81

goat killed on the spot. After offering the rice to the
Bisal Mari they take it, with the carcass of the goat, to
the south fort gate and westwards, going round the fort
in the inner circle, dragging the carcass of the goat on
the ground, and all the way sprinkling the red rice over
the streets (this is said to purify the place lying inside
the circle traced in their course), till they arrive at the
point whence they started. They then convey the
carcass and the remaining rice to a spot near the shrine
of Madesvara, situated in the quarters where they live.
Then the entrails of the goat are roasted and, with the
rice, divided into three equal parts, and made into
three balls, which are given away to the Chakras1 for
their services in tom-toming during the rice-sprinkling
ceremony.

(2) Mart Made. On Monday of the second week
the Toreyars throw away all their old earthen pots,
used for cooking, and get their houses whitewashed.
They get new pots, prepare KitcJiadiz in them, cover
them with earthen lids and put aratis on them. At about
six p.m. the aratis are carried by females to a consecrated
pial (platform) known as the Gaddige, and placed in
front of a Kunna Kannadi (a looking-glass used as a
symbol of the goddess). Two sheep or goats are
killed in sacrifice on the spot, and all the flesh is
distributed amongst the families of Toreyars. This
done, the Kitchadi pots are carried by females in
procession to the Bisal Mari shrine, cloths about four
feet wide being spread all along the way on which the
procession walks, that they may not tread on the earth.
The Kitchadi in all the pots is offered to the Bisal
Mari, and heaped up on a cloth in front of the Bisal
Mari image. The females return home with the empty
pots, which will henceforth be used for cooking in their
families. The heap of Kitchadi then becomes the
property of the washerman Pujari, who distributes it
amongst his friends and relatives. At the end of this

1 A section of the Outcastes.

2 A dish of flour aud buttermilk.

82 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

week the Mane Manchi shrine, which remains closed all
the year, is opened. It contains a hole resembling
an ant-hill, which is said to be the abode of an
unknown serpent, to which the name of Mane
Manchamma is given. Prayers are offered here,
chiefly by the men that are to swing on the Sidi,
but also by the man that performs the " Human Sacrifice
Ceremony," which is now a semblance, not a reality.
The Toreyar caste men generally bring from their
houses bunches of plantains and store them in this
shrine. They are placed there to remain till the Sidi is
over, after which they become the property of the
families by whom they were brought to the shrine.

(3) Mart Sidi. This occupies the third week of
the Jatra. On the Sunday before the Monday on
which the Sidi takes place, the Human Sacrifice
Ceremony called Bali (Sanskrit for offering) is per
formed. It begins at midnight, and lasts till dawn.
The man appointed for the Bali is made to lie down,
a piece of cloth fully covering his body. This takes
place on the same spot where the rice for the Mari
Saru (already explained) was prepared. A carpenter
begins the ceremony by touching the man lying down
with a cluster of flowers of the cocoanut tree. The
Chakras1 keep tom-toming, while the carpenter dances
round the victim, singing songs. Fires are lit all
round. The carpenter closes his dance by touching
the victim again with his cluster of flowers about
daybreak. The people present carry the victim (the
Bali man) to the Mane Manchi shrine, where he takes
rest and walks straight home.

On Monday the carpenter who performed the Bali
ceremony the previous day gets the Sidi Car fitted
up. It is ready about five p.m. for the swing. The
men to swing2 on the Sidi are kept without food.
They take a cold bath, dress themselves on the pial
of Gaddige (mentioned in connexion with Made'1)
and then go to the palace, where they get a pre-

1 See p. 81, n. 1. • See p. 59, n. 1. 3 See p. 81.

PLATE XV

SHRINE OF POI.EKAMMA

SHRINE AND IMAGKS OF BISAI.-MARI

PL AT i- XVI

WORSHIP IN THE CANARESE COUNTRY 83

sent of some betel leaves and nuts, and thence they
proceed to the shrine of Mane Manchi, offer prayers
there, and join the party in Bisal Mariamma-nagudi,
i.e. the temple of Bisal Mari, where the Sidi is
ready with the victims, viz. two buffaloes, one on behalf
of each man that swings on the Sidi, and a sheep or a
goat. The buffaloes are smeared with turmeric (yellow
powder) and kunkuma (red powder), and are also
garlanded with flowers and margosa leaves. They
remain with the Sidi, but, before the men are allowed
by the carpenter to swing on the Sidi, the carpenter
tests his fittings, and offers the goat in sacrifice. Its
blood is taken and sprinkled over all the joints of the
car and the wheels of the Sidi. The goat sacrificed is
given away to the coolies that work at the car. Then
the Sidi procession begins. The two men who are to
swing go with the buffaloes to the Hiridevathi shrine,
where another Sidi party from Yeerangere, the northern
part of the city, meets them with another Sidi, one
buffalo, and one man to swing. One at a time mounts
on each Sidi. After mounting, each lightly strikes the
other as the Sidis cross. Then each swings suspended
by a band round his waist on his Sidi. It is at this
time that the buffaloes are all killed one after another.
It is attempted to cut off the head of each victim with
one blow, but actually more blows are used before the
buffaloes' heads are severed. When this is over, the
men on the Sidis get down and return to the Hiridevathi
shrine. There they offer puja, after which the parties
return home. The party from the Bisal Mari shrine go
to the Mane Manchi shrine, take rest, dine, and spend
the night there, offering prayers, etc. The following
morning they walk home.

(4) Kelammana Habba. The same night the buffa
loes' carcasses are removed by Chakras and carried to
the open place outside the fort, adjoining the southern
wall, forming the Barr Parade Maidan, which place is
presumed to be that of Kel Mari. There they put up for
the occasion a green shed, and place the two buffaloes'
heads within it. On these heads are placed lights, and

84 THK VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

the faces are smeared with fat turmeric, and kunkuma.
The right foreleg of each animal is cut off, and stuck
into the mouth. The flesh, etc., of the buffaloes is
cooked and eaten by the Chakras as well as by their
friends and relatives. For one week the heads are
kept in the above sheds and worshipped every day.
On the next Monday the Chakras and Holeyars, called
also the Balagai caste, carry the heads of the two buffa
loes in grand procession to their quarters and eat them
up, if they are not very putrid.

A legend is prevalent regarding this Kel Mari.
Hiridevathi, the eldest of the Mari sisters, is said to
have ordered one of her younger sisters, Kel Mari, to
bring fire. The latter went, and in her search for fire
she found a lot of low-caste men cooking the flesh of a
buffalo and eating the same. It was a curious sight for
her to see them do so. She sat there observing what
was going on, and lost time. As she was late, the
eldest sister was very angry and excommunicated her
with a curse, saying that she should only be worshipped
by the lowest class of people. Hence the heads of
the buffaloes are worshipped in the name of Kel
Mari.

The following legend is believed by the common
people. Once upon a time there lived a Rishi who had
a fair daughter. A Chandala, i.e. an Outcaste, desired
to marry her. He went to Kasi (Benares) in the
disguise of a Brahman, where, under the tuition of a
learned Brahman, he became well versed in the S&stras
(i.e. the sacred books), and learnt the Brahman modes
of life. On his return he passed himself off for a
Brahman, and after some time made offers to the Rishi
lady, and somehow succeeded in prevailing upon her to
marry him. She did so, her father also consenting to
the match. They lived a married life for some time,
and had children. One day it so happened that one of
the children noticed the father stitch an old shoe
previous to going out for a bath. This seemed curious,
and the child drew the mother's attention to it. Then
the mother, by virtue of her tapas (i.e. austerities),

WORSHIP IN THE CANARESE COUNTRY 85

came to know the base trick that had been played upon
her by her husband, and cursed him and herself. The
curse on herself was that she should be born a Mari, to
be worshipped only by low-caste men. The curse on
him was that he should be born a buffalo, fit to be
sacrificed to her, and that her children should be born as
sheep and chickens. Therefore, during the periodical
Mari festivals, buffaloes, sheep, and chickens are used
as victims, and the right leg of the male buffalo is cut
off and stuck in his mouth, in memory of his having
stitched the shoes in his disguise as a Brahman.

Animal sacrifices are generally offered by Vaisyas
and Sudras, the victims being usually buffaloes, sheep or
goats, and fowls. These sacrifices are usually propitia
tory. Sometimes they are thank-offerings, but there is
no sin-offering. When, owing to sickness, any one's
life is despaired of, a vow to sacrifice the life of an
animal on the recovery of the sick person is made and
carried out by the convalescent as soon as possible after
restoration to health. Should any misfortune happen
to a personal enemy, an animal is at once sacrificed as a
thank-offering !

In all these cases, the victim is taken before the
altar, and there decapitated by a stroke of a sword,
the blood being sprinkled on the object before which
the sacrifice is offered, or on the ground in the vicinity.
In no case is the blood ever sprinkled on the persons
offering the sacrifice. Before a building is finished or
occupied, the same kind of sacrifice is made, to pro
pitiate the spirit supposed to have already entered there,
and the blood of the victim is sprinkled over the
materials of which the building is constructed.

Similarly, when a well is sunk, or a tank built, or
a new tool or agricultural implement used, all of which
from their nature might be the means of causing death,
a sacrifice is offered to the evil spirit to prevent acci
dents, and, in the case of sharp-edged tools, blood is
poured on that part which would cause the hurt. A
partial sacrifice is made in the case of tools and imple
ments which from their nature would not be likely to

86 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

cause death, and in these cases only a slight cut is made,
usually in the nose or ear of the animal, sufficient to
draw a few drops of blood, which are smeared on the
tool, as already mentioned. In cases of epidemics,
blood is poured over the image of the deity supposed to
be responsible for the disease.

Coorg. The relic of human sacrifice described
above, in Mr. Ramakrishna Row's memorandum, would
serve to show that in Mysore such sacrifices, at one time,
formed a regular part of the worship of the tillage
deities ; and this is confirmed by the account given in
the Mysore and Coorg Manual by Mr. Lewis Rice1 of the
worship of the grama-devata in Coorg, which is a hill
country to the west of the Mysore State inhabited by a
mixed population consisting of aboriginal tribes, a
hundred and twenty thousand cultivators and artisans,
who were formerly serfs but are now freemen, and a
ruling class of Kodagas or Coorgs, who probably
migrated into the country about the third century A.D.
He writes:

" The essential features of the religion of the Coorgs
are anti-Brahmanical, and consist of ancestral and
demon-worship. As among other Dravidian mountain
tribes, so also in Coorg, tradition relates that human
sacrifices were offered in former times to secure the
favour of their grama-devatas, Mariamma, Durga, and
Bhadra-KalT,2 the tutelary goddesses of the Sakti3 line,
who are supposed to protect the villages or Nads from
all evil influences. In Kirindadu and Koniucheri-Grama
in Katiyet Nad, once every three years, in December
and June, a human sacrifice used to be brought to
Bhadra-Kali, and during the offering by the panikas
(a class of religious mendicants), the people exclaimed
'Al Amma! ' — 'A man, oh mother! ' — but once a devotee
shouted 'Al All Amma, Adu! ' — ' Not a man, oh mother !
a goat ' ; and since that time a he-goat without blemish

1 Vol. iii, pp. 264, 265. _

2 Durga and Bhadra-Kali are names of Kali, the wife of Siva.

3 See above, p. 29, n. 1.

WORSHIP IN THE CANARESE COUNTRY 87

has been sacrificed. Similarly in Bellur in Tavaligeri-
Murnad of Kiggatnad taluq, once a year, by turns from
each house, a man was sacrificed by cutting off his head
at the temple ; but when the turn came to a certain
home, the devoted victim made his escape into the
jungle. The villagers, after an unsuccessful search,
returned to the temple, and said to the pujari ' Kalak
Adu,' which has a double meaning, viz. Kalak, next year,
Adu, we will give, or Adu, a goat, and thenceforth only
scapegoats were offered. The devotees fast during
the day. The he-goat is killed in the afternoon , the
blood is sprinkled upon a stone, and the flesh eaten. At
night the Panikas, dressed in red and white striped
cotton cloths, and their faces covered with metal or bark
masks, perform their demoniacal dances. In Mercara
taluq in Ippanivolavade, and in Kadikeri in Halerinad,
the villagers sacrifice a Kona or male buffalo instead of
a man. Tied to a tree in a gloomy grove near the
temple, the beast is killed by a Meda (a wandering
tribe, who are basket and mat makers), who cuts off
its head with a large knife, but no Coorgs are present
at the time. The blood is spilled on a stone under a
tree, and the flesh eaten by the Medas. In connexion
with this sacrifice there are peculiar dances performed
by the Coorgs around the temple, the kombata or horn
dance, each man wearing the horns of a spotted deer
or stag on his head ; the pili-ata or peacock's feather
dance, the performers being ornamented with peacock's
feathers, and the chauri-ata or yak-tail dance, during
which the dancers, keeping time, swing yak-tails.
These ornaments belong to the temple, where they
are kept.

" In some cases where a particular curse, which can
only be removed by an extraordinary sacrifice, is
said by the Kaniya1 to rest upon a house, stable, or
field, the ceremony performed seems to be another
relic of human sacrifices. The Kaniya sends for some

1 The Kaniyas are religious mendicants, said to be descen
dants of a Malayali Brahman and a low-caste woman.

88 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

of his fraternity, the Panikas or Bannus, and they set
to work. A pit is dug in the middle room of the house,
or in the yard or the stable, or the field, as the occasion
may require. Into this one of the magicians descends.
He sits down in Hindu fashion muttering mantrams.
Pieces of wood are laid across the pit, and covered with
earth a foot or two deep. Upon this platform a fire of
jack wood is kindled, into which butter, sugar, different
kinds of grain, etc., are thrown. This sacrifice continues
all night, the Panika sacrificer above, and his im
mured colleague below, repeating their incantations
all the while. In the morning the pit is opened,
and the man returns to the light of day. These
sacrifices are called maranada bait, or death atone
ments. They cost from ten to fifteen rupees. Instead
of a human being, a cock is sometimes shut up in the
pit and killed afterwards.

"In cases of sore affliction befalling a whole Gram?,
or Nad (village), such as small-pox, cholera, or cattle
disease, the ryots combine to appease the wrath of
Mariamma by collecting contributions of pigs, fowls,
rice, cocoanuts, bread, and plantains from the different
houses, and depositing them at the Mandu : whence
they are carried in procession with tom-toms. In
one basket there is some rice, and the members of
each house on coming out bring a little rice in the
hand, and waving it round the head, throw it into
the basket, with the belief that the dreaded evil
will depart with the rice. At last the offerings are
put down on the Nad boundary, the animals are
killed, their blood is offered on a stone, the rice
and basket are left, and the rest of the provisions
are consumed by the persons composing the pro
cession. The people of adjoining Gramas or Nads
repeat the same ceremony, and thus the epidemic is
supposed to be banished from the country. In still
greater calamities, a flock of sheep is driven from
Nad to Nad, and at last expelled from the country."

PLATE XVII

PLATE XVI II

IMAGE OF GODDESS WITH NAILS DRIVKX
INTO HER BODY

Uri-T-AI.O SACRIFICED TO MOTOR HICYCLE

£9

CHAPTER VI

MODES OF WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL
COUNTRY

THE ceremonies observed in the worship of village
deities in the Tamil districts of Tanjore, Trichinopoly,
and Cuddalore closely resemble those prevailing in the
Telugu and Canarese countries ; but there are striking
differences, which seem largely due to the influence of
Brahmanical ideas and forms of worship. In the first
place the ceremonial washing of the images and the
processions during the festivals are much more elabor
ate in these districts than among the Telugus and
Canarese. Then, again, the male deities connected
with the goddesses are much more prominent, and tend
much more to assume an independent position. lyenar is
entirely independent and has a separate shrine and often
a separate festival, while in many cases special sacri
fices are made to the male attendants, Madurai-Viran
and Munadian. And then, in the third place, there is a
widespread idea that animal sacrifices are distasteful to
good and respectable deities, both male and female, so
that no animal sacrifices are ever offered to lyenar or to
the good and kind goddesses. The ancient sacrifices
of fowls, sheep, goats, and buffaloes are, indeed, still
offered, but only to the male attendants, Madurai-Viran
and Munadian, and not the goddesses themselves ; and
while the animals are being killed a curtain is often
drawn in front of the image of the goddess, or else the
door of her shrine is shut, lest she should be shocked at
the sight of the shedding of blood.

An account of the modes of worship and festivals
in some typical villages will clearly show both the

90 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

resemblances to the Telugu and Canarese uses, and also
the striking differences.

V andipaliam , Cuddalore District. In the district of
Cuddalore, at a village called Vandipaliam, three deities
are worshipped, Mariamman, Draupati and lyenar, each
of whom has a separate shrine. Mariamman's is the
largest, about twelve feet high, twenty-five feet long,
and twelve or fifteen feet broad. Draupati's is less
imposing, being only about six feet high, ten feet long,
and eight feet broad.

lyenar stands in the open, under a tree, with clay
images of horses, elephants, dogs, and warriors (or
Virans) on either side. The Virans are supposed to
keep watch over their master, while the animals serve
as his vahanams, vehicles, on which he rides in his
nightly chase after evil spirits. Individual villagers,
both men and women, constantly offer private sacrifices
consisting of boiled rice, fruit, sugar, incense, and
camphor, or fowls and sheep to the Viran of lyenar,
and then the victim is brought before the image of the
Viran. Water is sprinkled over it, a wreath of flowers
is put round its neck by the pujari, and turmeric and
kunkuma are smeared on its forehead. Then a
bottle of arrack, a pot of toddy, two or three cheroots,
some ganja (Indian hemp) and opium, and dried fish are
presented to the Viran, afterwards to be consumed by
the pujari. Camphor is burnt between the animal and
the Viran, and finally the head of the victim is cut off
with a large chopper by a pujari, specially appointed
for the purpose. Nothing special is done with the
blood. The carcass is taken away by the offerer, and
the head belongs to the pujari who cuts it off.

Once a year a public sacrifice is offered to lyenar by
the whole village, some time in April or May. On this
occasion the image of lyenar, which is made of granite
and stands about one-and-a-half feet high, is first washed
with gingelly oil,1 lime-juice, milk and curds, with

1 Gingelly is an Indian name for Sesatnutn Indicum and
Sesamiim Orientate.

WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL COUNTRY 91

cocoanut, plantains, sugar, and some aromatic spices all
mixed together.1 Then cocoanut milk and sandalwood
paste are put on the forehead, and a cloth tied round its
waist. The villagers bring boiled rice, cocoanuts,
plantains, betel leaves and betel nut, sweet cakes of
rice, flour, sugar and cocoanut in large quantities, and
spread them all on leaves upon the ground before the
image. The pujari burns incense and camphor, and
finally the offerings are all distributed among the people
present. After these offerings have been duly made, a
curtain is drawn in front of the image of lyenar, and
sheep and fowls are sacrificed to the Viran, in the same
way as at private sacrifices.

Mariamman and Draupati have each one annual
festival, which lasts for ten days, but no animal sacri
fices are ever offered on these festivals, or on any other
occasions at the shrines of these goddesses. The
festival begins with the hoisting of a flag, and then for
eight days there are processions morning and evening,
when a metal image of the goddess is carried in a
palanquin through all the streets of the village. On
the ninth day there is a car procession, when the image
is put on a large car, about twenty feet high, and
dragged round the village, while on the night of the
tenth day the image is put on a raft and dragged round
the tank with torches, pipes, and tom-toms.2 Offerings
of boiled rice, fruits and flowers, incense and camphor,
are made every day, and especially on the ninth day,
when a large crowd usually assembles.

Shiyali, Tanjore District. At a large village in the
Tanjore district, named Shiyali, where Brahmanism is
very strong, lyenar, Pidari, Mariamman, Angalamman,
and Kaliamman are all worshipped with typical rites ;
but in this village, though no animal sacrifices are offered
to Kaliamman, Mariamman, Pidari or Angalamman,
yet they are offered to the subordinate male deities,

1 These ablutions are copied from the great temples.

2 The processions and the progress on the raft are copied
from the observances of Brahmanical temples.

92 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

Madurai-VIran and Munadian, who act as guardians of
their shrines. Apparently, however, Pidari is regarded
as slightly less squeamish in the matter of bloodshed
than the others, as curtains are drawn before the other
three when animals are sacrificed to Madurai-Viran
and Munadian, but not before Pidari. No festival is
held for KalTamman, who seems to be a rather inert
deity, of no great account in practical affairs.

During the festivals of Mariamman, Pidari, and
Angalamman the ablutions are particularly elaborate.
The image is washed twice every day, morning and
evening, with water, oil, milk, cocoanut milk, a solution
of turmeric, rose water, a solution of sandalwood, honey,
sugar, limes, and a solution of the bark of certain trees,
separately in a regular order. This ceremonial washing
is called in the Tamil country Abishegam,1 and certainly
deserves an imposing name. The pujari next repeats
certain mantrams (sacred texts) before the image, after
the example of Brahman priests, and the offerings of the
people, boiled rice, fruit, flowers, cakes, sugar, etc., are
presented, incense and camphor are burnt, and prostra
tions made to the deity. Every evening, after sunset,
an image of the goddess, made of a metal, on a small
wooden platform decorated with tinsel and flowers, is
carried in procession on the shoulders of the people
round the main streets of the village, accompanied
with fireworks and torches, and the inspiriting sounds
of the tom-tom. After the procession, camphor is
burnt, a cocoanut broken, and the image replaced in the
shrine.

On the tenth day of the festival, in the evening,
animal sacrifices are offered, consisting of fowls and
sheep, to Madurai-VIran and Munadian. People who
have made vows, in times of sickness or distress, or in
order to secure some boon, bring their victims to the
shrine. Water and turmeric are poured on the whole
body of the animal, and some mantrams are recited by

1 Abhisheka, the Sanskrit word for the ceremonial anointing
of a king or a god.

WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL COUNTRY 93

the pujari. If the animal is a sheep or goat, it is then
seized by the offerer and his friends, some of whom
catch hold of its hind legs, while others hold fast to a
rope fastened round its neck, and its head is cut off
with one stroke of the chopper by one of the pujaris.
The head is placed in front of the image of Madurai-
Viran with its right foreleg in its mouth. During the
killing of the victim a curtain is drawn in front of
Mariamman and Angalamman, but not before Pidari.

At the festival of Mariamman two special ceremonies
are performed, which are not performed at the other
festivals in this village, but are quite common elsewhere.
When sheep are sacrificed, the blood is collected in
earthen vessels, mixed with boiled rice, and then
sprinkled in the enclosure of the shrine and in the four
corners of the main streets, through which the pro
cession passes. What remains over is taken and thrown
away in some field at a little distance from the village.

Then, after the animals have been sacrified, the
fire-walking ceremony1 takes place. A trench is dug
inside the enclosure of the shrine and filled with logs of
wood, which are set alight and reduced to glowing
embers. In the evening the metal image2 of Mariam
man is brought out and held in front of the fire, while
a short puja is performed by burning camphor. Then
the pujari walks barefooted over the red-hot embers,
followed by other people, who have made vows to
perform this act of devotion.

During the festival of Pidari, there is a car proces
sion on the ninth day, which is always the day of the
new moon, and in the evening one or more buffaloes
are sacrified to Madurai-Viran or Munadian. The
victim is always a male buffalo, and is generally
brought by some private person. Water and turmeric
are first poured over it, and it is garlanded with flowers,
and then its head is cut off with a single stroke of the
chopper by a man of the Padayachi caste, who, by the
way, is not an Outcaste. The head is placed in front

1 See p. 79 above. 2 See pp 36-37 above.

94 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

of the image, but the foreleg is not cut off or put in
the mouth, as is constantly done in the case of buffalo
sacrifices in the Telugu country. The blood is collected
in an earthen vessel and placed near the image of
Pidari and left there the whole night. Next morning,
the people assured me, only a small quantity of blood
is found in the vessel, Pidari having the drunk the
greater part of it. The remains are poured away
outside the compound of the shrine. The heads and
carcasses of the buffaloes sacrificed are all handed over
to the Pariahs of the village, who take them away for
a feast.

At the festival of Angalamman pigs are sacrified to
her male guardians as well as sheep, goats, and fowls,
not only by the Pariahs, but also by any caste of Sudras.
The lyenar festival takes place at the same time as the
Pidari festival, and the same ceremonies are performed,
except that no animals are sacrificed at his shrine.

The idea, so naively expressed in the Pidari festival
at Shiyali, that the goddess actually drinks the blood
of the victims, is not uncommon. In many villages
some of the blood is collected in an earthen vessel and
placed inside the shrine after the sacrifice. At one
village, where pigs are sacrificed to Madurai-Viran,
though the blood is not collected in any vessel, but
simply allowed to flow on the ground, the people assur
ed me that Madurai-Viran drinks it. In the same way
the rice and the blood sprinkled through the streets of a
village or round the boundaries, which is called poli, or
food, in Telugu, is regarded as food for the evil spirits.
In many Tamil villages the rice and blood are made up
into little balls and thrown up in the air, where, as the
people firmly believe, they are seized by the deity
to whom the sacrifice is offered, or by the evil spirits
that hover round the procession.

Vellore Taluk, North Arcot District. The following
interesting descriptions of the invocation of Pidari and
of the karagam procession are quoted from an article by
F. J. Richards, Esq., I.C.S. :

" After this part of the cermony is over, the pujari

WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL COUNTRY 95

invokes the deity to the accompaniment of a chorus
of singers, who are either his relations or who share the
income with him. The invocation takes place either
near the temple or at some prescribed spot in the
direction from which the deity is popularly believed to
have arrived at the village. In the latter case, after
the abishegam is over, the persons present move in a
body to the prescribed spot and then commence the
invocation. This invocation, which to the persons
present is a period of some anxiety, lasts from ten to
thirty minutes, when all on a sudden one of those present
gets inspired. The meaning of the invocation is a call
to the deity to come and help them in their celebrations.
The inspired attentively watches the goddess during the
early stages of the worship. Later on, with closed eyes
he listens to the song of the pujari and his chorus. He
goes into a counterfeit slumber, first shutting one eye,
then the other, then nodding, then swaying so much to
one side that the bystanders have to save him from fall
ing. At last he collapses into the arms of one or more of
his neighbours. He is watched very intently by all those
present. The attention of the votaries is transferred
from the goddess to the inspired man. All those seated
around him move away from him, and a space is cleared
to enable him to move freely. Camphor is then
burnt before him, and the inspired man is moved either
to speak or be silent or laugh or weep. The speaking
and laughing are welcomed by the votaries with delight.
They then ask him to grant them permission for
celebrating the festival. Generally the permission is
granted when he is either speaking or laughing. But
if he should weep or be silent, that is taken as an indi
cation of the wrath of the deity, and fresh songs are
sung in louder tones to appease the deity. After a
fairly long interval, when all become anxious about
their own safety, and when the songs have been well-
nigh exhausted, the inspired man is again approached
with burning camphor. This time he is generally more
sympathetic. Very often he gives his unconditional
assent for the celebration of the festival. But occasion-

96 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

ally, after according sanction to celebrate the festival,
the inspired man lifts up his hand and points at some
one whose conduct towards the community might not
have been acceptable to them in the previous year.
With some reluctance, the man pointed out seeks the
forgiveness of the inspired man, and is assured of it on
his promising to sacrifice a sheep or a fowl. After
permission to celebrate the festival is granted, the
people present proceed with the celebration."1

" Some years ago, it is said, a horse grazing close
by the spot where the goddess had been invoked, got
terrified by the noise of the drums, etc., and, after
galloping round the temple thrice, stopped in front of
the entrance. The villagers attributed the horse's
action to the inspiration of the goddess."2

On the day of the car procession, which takes place on
the second day of the festival, "a well-formed bronze
image of the idol is placed in a car immediately after
the usual abishegam ceremony, and the car is dragged
through the several streets of a village by all the villagers.
The pujari and the others who wore the kapu on
the first day will continue to appear in yellow garments
and take active parts in the car procession. The car will
generally be preceded by drums and trumpets. In
front of the car, one of the villagers v/ho has special
pretensions to religious fervour carries the karagam on
his head, and entertains the people by vigorous move
ments to and fro without allowing the karagam to fall.
His dress on such occasions consists of loose drawers,
which are prevented from slipping by a tape passing
round his waist. Generally nowadays a sash is used to
keep it in position. The abdomen of this dancer is left
open to public view. A piece of square cloth about a yard
in diameter protects his back. The right hand holds a
long sword and the left hand either a lime or green leaves
in a piece of cloth. By pretending to let slip the karagam
and by maintaining it in its original place on his head

1 Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, Jan. ,1920, pp. 111-12.
« Ib., p. 119.

WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL COUNTRY 97

he entertains the villagers. Beyond sipping lime-juice
he is not allowed to eat or drink anything. As the
procession, consisting of drums, the karagam dancer and
the goddess in the car, passes through a village, sacri
fices are offered to the goddess at all points where two
streets cross. The sacrifices in this taluk are fowls on
this occasion, owing to the absence of large villages
where the people can afford to sacrifice sheep. As the
goddess passes through the main streets of a village, at
all the houses cocoanuts are broken and incense is burnt.
The pujari is also given some pecuniary remuneration,
but he cannot be sure of it in all villages. He is, how
ever, entitled to retain for his own use the smaller
half of the cocoanut presented to him for being offered
to the deity. He generally manages to shelve it into a
big basket kept by his side for the purpose. The car
will go only through the main streets of a village,
and will return to its original place of starting
without stopping anywhere. It is considered a bad omen
amongst the Hindus if the gods and the goddesses have
to remain in the streets even for a night in their car.
Hence the place of starting must be reached before
sunset under any circumstances. The ceremonies for
the day will be over when, after reaching the place of
starting, a fowl or sheep is sacrificed and the pujari and
others return homeward. In villages where a so-called
' husband ' has been appointed, that person is bound to
sleep in the temple, or near its precincts, for this night
also, During the night a dramatic performance at the
expense of the leading ryots of the village is given.
The performance lasts generally from ten p.m. till
dawn, and the drama enacted nowadays is a compro
mise between the rude country dance and the present
day dramas."1

Essene, Trichinopoly District. Another character
istic festival, which is specially conducted and paid for
by the Pariahs, is held in the Trichinopoly district, near
the village of Essene, during the month of July or
August.

1 Ib.,pp. 114-15.

7

98 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

About a mile south of the village, on the road to
Madras, there is a shrine, consisting of a large open
enclosure about thirty feet square, surrounded by a low
stone wall. On the west side of the enclosure are three
large images of men seated on tigers, each about eight
feet high, representing Pandur-Karuppanna (Pandur
being the name of an ancient village), Padu-Karuppanna
{i.e. the New Karuppanna), and Ursuthiyan (he who
goes round the village); and in front of them a number
of small stones, black with oil, six carved roughly into
the figures of men and women, and about six quite plain,
some of them only about six inches high. At right
angles to this row of stones, on the south side, runs a
small shrine with seven small female figures represent
ing the kanimars, i.e. the seven virgins, while at the
north-east corner is a small separate enclosure with the
figure of Madurai-Viran on horseback with his two
wives seated in front of him. The presiding deities of
the shrine are the goddesses, represented by the small
stones, and not the imposing but ugly male creatures
seated on tigers.

When the time for the festival has been fixed, each
family of Pariahs gives about one rupee for the ex
penses. Then, on the first day, they perform puja
(worship) in the Pariah street of the village Melakari
close by the shrine. Three sets of seven brass pots,
standing one above the other, are placed in one of the
huts, and on the top of each set a small image made of
the five metals, one image representing Padu-Karup
panna, another Pandur-Karuppanna, and the third a
female deity, Malaiyayi, who is the wife of Karuppanna.
Boiled rice is first offered, cocoanuts are broken and
incense burnt to the pots, and then at night there is a
sword and spear dance in the compound of the
hut.

On the second day the Pariahs come to the shrine,
and wash the small black stones and images represent
ing the goddesses, with oil, milk, cocoanut milk, lime-
juice, and water, put on them some new pieces of cloth,
garland them with flowers, and mark them with sandal-

WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL COUNTRY 99

wood paste. Then they boil rice on the spot, and offer
it to the goddesses, and afterwards bring to the shrine
sheep, pigs, and fowls. Water is first poured over
each sheep, and, if it shivers, it is accepted by the god
desses ; if not, it is rejected.1 Then one of the Pariah
pujaris cuts off the head of the acceptable victims with
a sword. If the head is cut off at one blow, another
pujari, who is supposed to be under the influence of the
deity, sucks out the blood from the neck of the carcass.
During the night he thus sucks the blood of about a
hundred sheep. After the sheep have been killed, four
or five pigs are offered by a few of the Pariahs, who have
made vows. The head of each pig is cut off with a
chopper, and then a small quantity of blood is collected
in some earthen vessels, newly brought from the
potter's house, and placed inside the shrine. When all
the people have left the place, the pujaris mix this
blood with some boiled rice, and throw it about a
hundred yards outside the shrine to the north-west,
north-east, south-east, and south-west, and that ends the
festival.

Trichinopoly. The sucking of the blood is a horrid
business, but not so horrid as an annual ceremony which
takes place every February or March at Trichinopoly,
one of the great centres of trade and education in the
Tamil country, during the festival of Kalumaiamman.
She is regarded as the guardian against cholera and
cattle plague, and epidemics generally. A very fat
pujari of the Vellala caste, who holds this unenviable
office by hereditary right, is lifted up above the vast
crowd on the arms of two men ; some two thousand
kids are then sacrificed one after the other, the blood
of the first eight or ten is collected in a large silver
vessel holding about a quart, and handed up to the
pujari, who drinks it all. Then, as the throat of
each kid is cut, the animal is handed up to him, and he
sucks or pretends to suck the blood out of the carcass.
The belief of the people is that the blood is consumed

1 See above, p. 55.

100 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

by the spirit of Kalumaiamman in the pujarl ; and her
image stands on a platform during the ceremony about
fifteen yards away.

A similar idea is probably expressed by a particu
larly revolting method of killing sheep, which is not
uncommon in Tamil villages during these festivals.
One of the pujaris, who is sometimes painted to repre
sent a leopard, flies at the sheep like a wild beast,
seizes it by the throat with his teeth, and kills it by
biting through the jugular vein.

Irungalur, near Trichinopoly. There is another
strange ceremony, which is quite common in the Tamil
country, connected with the propitiation of the boundary
goddess, where the blood of the victim seems to be
regarded as the food of malignant spirits. At Irunga-
lur, a village about fourteen miles from Trichinopoly,
it forms the conclusion of the festival of the local god
dess Kurumbai. During the first seven days the image
is duly washed, offerings of rice and fruit are made, and
processions are held through the streets of the
village. Then, on the eighth day, a small earthen
pot, called the karagam, is prepared at the shrine
of the goddess. The elaborate decorations of the
karagam have been already described,1 and I need
not describe them again. When it is ready, some boiled
rice, fruits, cocoanuts, and incense are first offered to
it, and then the pujari ties on his wrist a kapu, i.e. a
cord dyed with yellow turmeric, to protect him from
evil spirits. A lamb is next brought and sacrificed in
front of him, to give him supernatural power, and he
then takes the karagam on his head, inarches with it in
procession through the village to the sound of tom-toms
and pipes, and finally deposits it under a booth erected
in the middle of the village. On the eighth, ninth and
tenth days the karagam is taken in procession morning
and evening, and rice and fruits, camphor and incense
are also offered to it.

On the tenth day, at about seven a.m., before the pro-

1 See p. 37 above.

WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL COUNTRY 101

cession starts, a lamb is killed in front of the karagam.
The throat is first cut, and then the head cut off and
the blood collected in a new earthen pot filled with
boiled rice. The pot is put in a frame of ropes and
taken by a pujari to a stone, about four feet high,
called ellai-kal (i.e. boundary-stone), planted in the
ground some three hundred yards off. A crowd of
villagers run after him with wild yells, but no tom
toms or pipes are played. When he comes to the
boundary-stone, he runs round it thrice, and the third
time throws the pot over his shoulder behind him on to
another smaller stone, about two feet high and some
five or six feet in circumference, which stands at the
foot of the ellai-kal. The earthen pot is dashed to
pieces and the rice and blood scatter over the two stones
and all around them. The pujari then runs quickly
back to the booth, where the karagam stands, without
looking behind him, followed by the crowd in dead
silence. The man who carries the pot is supposed to
be possessed by Kurambai, and is in a frantic state as
he runs to the boundary- stone, and has to be held up by
some of the crowd, to prevent his falling to the ground.
The pouring out of the rice and blood is regarded as a
propitiation of an evil spirit residing in the boundary-
stone, called Ellai-Karuppu, and of all the evil and
malignant spirits of the neighbourhood, who are his
attendants. When the pujari gets back to the booth,
he prostrates himself before the karagam, and all the
people do the same. Then they go to bathe in the
neighbouring tank, and afterwards return to the booth,
when another lamb is sacrificed, and the procession
starts off through the village.

In the evening of the same day a pig, a sheep, and
a cock are bought from the funds of the shrine, and
taken to the shrine itself, which stands outside the
village. There they are killed in front of a stone image
of Madurai-Viran, which stands in a separate little
shrine in front of th^.t of Kurumbai. A large quantity
of rice is boiled inside the walls of the compound, and
then the flesh of the three animals is cooked and made

102 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

into curry. The rice and curry are put on a cloth,
spread over straw, in front of the image, while the
pujan does puja to Madurai-Viran inside his shrine,
offering arrack, fruit, flowers, incense, and camphor,
and saying mantrams ; afterwards, he sprinkles some
water on the curry and rice, which are then distributed
to the people present. During this sacrifice to Madurai-
Viran Kurumbai's shrine is closed.

Pullambadi, Trichinopoly District. The ceremony
of propitiating the spirit of the boundary-stone is very
common in the Trichinopoly district, though there are
the usual variations of local custom in performing it.
At a village called Pullambadi it takes place in connex
ion with the festival of Kulanthalamman, which lasts
for fifteen days. On the first day the image is washed,
and a sheep is killed outside the enclosure as a sacrifice
to Karuppu (a subordinate male deity), the door of the
shrine of the goddess being closed. Rice, fruit, flowers,
etc., are also offered to the goddess. On the next six
days only rice, fruits, etc., are offered ; but on the
eighth day two more sheep are sacrificed to Karuppu.
From the ninth to the fifteenth day the metal image of
the goddess1 is taken in procession round the village,
each day on a different vahanam :2 on the fifteenth day
it is carried on a car, and on this day three sheep are
killed in front of the shrine, before the procession
starts, the blood being collected in an earthen pot and
mixed with boiled rice. Then a sheep is sacrificed at
each of the nine corners of the streets that surround the
temple, and the blood of all the sheep is put into earthen
vessels by a pujari of the Shervagaru caste, called
the Kappukaran, the animals being all killed by one of
the Pariahs. The Kappukaran then mixes all the blood
and rice together in one large earthen pot and carries
it to the village, which is about half a mile away. Nine
more sheep are sacrificed at nine other corners of the
village itself, and their blood is again collected and
mixed with the rest. When the car has come back to

1 See pp. 36-37 above. * See p 90 above.

WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL COUNTRY 103

its resting-place and the procession is finished, the
Kappukaran takes the large vessel full of blood and rice,
and, followed by all the men of the village, some hold
ing him by the arms, goes to the western boundary of
the village lands, where is the boundary-stone, ellai-
kal, about two feet square and one-and-a-half feet high.
A lamb is then killed over the stone, so that its blood
flows over it ; and the head, which has been cut off, is
then placed on the top of the stone. The Kappukaran
runs thrice round the stone, carrying the pot full of rice
and blood in a framework of ropes, and, facing the
stone, dashes the pot against it. This done, he at once
runs away, without stopping to look back. The other
villagers go away before the pot is broken. This con
cludes the ceremonies of the festival.

Semdza, near Pudukkottai. At another village,
Sembia, in the Pudukkottai taluq,1 the ceremonies
connected with the propitiation of boundary spirits are
rather more elaborate. There is a boundary-stone at
each of the four corners of the village site, five more
stones inside the village, and another stone on the
boundary of the village land.

During the Pidari festival boiled rice, fruits, etc.,
are offered at all the nine boundary stones in the village.
On the sixteenth day the image of Pidari is taken to the
house of the pujari, who is to perform the dread ceremony
of propitiating the spirits that inhabit the boundary-
stone of the village lands. The pujari puts the kapu2
on his wrist, and a goat, entirely black, is sacrificed
before the image, and its blood collected in an earthen
pot, but not mixed with rice. The metal image of
Pidari is then carried in procession round the village on
a wooden horse ; and at each of the nine stones in the
village itself a lamb is sacrificed. When this proces
sion is ended, the pujari with the kapu on his wrist takes
the earthen pot, with the blood of the black goat inside
it, fastens it inside a frame of ropes, and runs to the

1 A taluq is a division of a civil district.
* See p. 100,

104 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

boundary-stone on the extreme limit of the village land.
About twenty or thirty villagers run with him, holding him
by the arms, as he is out of his senses, being possessed
with Pidari. When he arrives at the stone, he runs
once round, and then stands facing it, and dashes the
pot against it. Without a moment's delay and without
looking behind him, he runs back to the place where
Pidari is seated on the wooden horse, on which she
was carried round the village. The image is taken
back to the shrine ; and the ceremony is at an end.

An untoward event happened a few years ago in
connexion with one of these Pidari festivals, at a
village in the Trichinopoly district. The festival had
commenced and the pujari had tied the kapu on his
wrist, when a dispute arose between the trustees of the
shrine, which caused the festival to be stopped. The
dispute could not be settled, and the festival was suspend
ed for three years, and during all that time there could be
no marriages among the Udaya caste, while the poor
pujari, with the kapu on his wrist, had to remain the
whole of the three years in the temple, not daring to
go out, lest Pidari in her wrath should slay him.

Tukanapaliam, Ta?ijore District. At a village in
the Tanjore district, called Tukanapaliam, the boun
dary spirits are propitiated during the Kaliamman fes
tival by the sacrifice of a buffalo. On the last day of the
festival the image of Kaliamman, who in many parts of
the Tanjore district is specially the goddess of the
boundary, is taken to the boundary-stone, and then one
male buffalo is killed beside the stone and buried in a
pit close by ; but nothing is done either with the head
or the blood.

Matuikalikudi, near Trichinopoly. The worship of
the village deity at a village called Mahakalikudi,
about eight miles from Trichinopoly, presents several
rather curious features. The chief deity is a goddess
called Ujinihonkali or Mahakali.1 In her shrine are
four subordinate female deities, Elliamman, Pullathal-

1 Great Kali.

WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL COUNTRY 105

amman, Vishalakshmiamman, and Arigalamman, and
three subordinate male deities, Madurai-VIran, Batha-
lama, and lyenar. (This is the only place where I have
come across lyenar as a subordinate deity.) In this
temple Ujinihonkali is worshipped by all classes, in
cluding the Brahmans, and while some of the pujaris
are Sudras, the others are Brahmans. An old Munsiff
of the district told me that he could remember the time
when all the pujaris were Sudras. The Brahmans
appear to have secured a footing in the shrine about
fifty years ago. The yearly festival is held in Feb
ruary or March, and lasts sixteen days.

On the first day, called Kankanadharanam (i.e. the
wearing of the bracelet), kankanam, i.e. a gold bangle
or bracelet, is prepared for the occasion by the temple
authorities and put on the wrist of the image, which is
made of the five metals in the form of a woman, and
stands about three feet high. This must be done at an
auspicious hour either of the day or night. One of the
6udra pujaris at the same time puts a kapu on his own
right wrist. Boiled rice, cocoanuts, plantains, and
limes are afterwards offered to the goddess, lights are
placed all over the shrine, and incense and camphor are
burnt. For eight days the same ceremonies are repeat
ed, the same bangle put on the wrist of the image and
the same kapu on the wrist of the piijari.

On the ninth day this bangle is removed and put in
the treasury of the shrine, and a new one put on. The
same offerings are made as on the other days, but on
this day, for the first time, the image is taken out and
carried in procession on a small wooden platform,
adorned with tinsel, through the village with music
and tom-toms, torches and fireworks.

These ceremonies are then repeated till the end of
the festival, but each day, till the fourteenth, the image
is carried on a different vehicle or vahanam ; .on the
tenth day on a wooden horse, on the eleventh on a car,
on the twelfth on a wooden lion, on the thirteenth in
a palanquin, on the fourteenth on a swan or bull. No
animal sacrifices are performed during the festival at

106 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

the shrine itself : but on the eleventh day many sheep
and goats are sacrificed in connexion with the car
procession. Just after the image is put on the car,
a kid is brought in front of it and decapitated by
a village watchman, or kavalgar, of the Umbellayar
caste. The kavalgar takes up the head and carcass
and carries them round the car, letting the blood
drip upon the ground, and then gives both to a
Pariah servant of the shrine. When the car returns,
a sheep is sacrificed in front of it. Its head is cut off
by the kavalgar, and its head and body are allowed to
lie upon the ground, while fruits, cocoanuts, and cam
phor are offered. The man who provides the sheep
ultimately takes the body and the pujari the head.
While the car is being dragged through the streets,
people who have made vows bring sheep to the doors
of their houses, and the kavalgar comes with his heavy
chopper and cuts off their heads.

Kannanur, near Trichinopoly. At the neighbouring
village of Kannanur there is a curious local variation in
the ordinary rite of sacrifice. During the festival of
Mariamman many people who have made vows bring
sheep, goats, fowls, pigeons, parrots, cows, and calves
to the temple, and leave them in the compound alive.
At the end of the festival these animals are all sold to a
contractor. Two years ago they fetched Rs. 400, a
good haul for the temple, which is particularly a large
one, covering two acres of ground enclosed by a high
wall.

Buffalo sacrifices are not as common in the Tamil as
in the Telugu country, but they are offered in many
villages, especially in connexion with the worship of
Madura-Kallamman.

Turayur, near Trichinopoly. At a village called
Turayur, near Trichinopoly, a buffalo sacrifice is offered
once in five or six years. Before the day of the festival
is fixed, the chief men of the village go to the shrine,
offer rice and fruits, etc., and ask the goddess whether
they may perform the festival. If a lizard utters a
chirp in a part of the temple fixed on beforehand, it is

WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL COUNTRY 107

taken as a sign that permission is given, and the fes
tival is arranged. The buffaloes devoted for sacrifice are
generally chosen some time beforehand by people who
make vows in sickness or trouble, and then allowed to
roam about the village at will. When they become
troublesome, the people go and ask permission of the
deity to hold a sacrifice. The buffaloes are brought to
the shrine on the appointed day and killed by a man
of the Kallar caste, who cuts off the heads with a
chopper. Nothing is done with the blood, but both
head and carcass are thrown into a pit close by the
shrine as soon as the animal is dead. The same pit is
used at each festival, but it is cleared out for each
occasion. When all the carcasses have been put in,
incense and camphor are burnt, cocoanuts and fruits are
offered on the edge of the pit, and then earth is thrown
in, and the carcasses are covered up. This takes place
outside the temple walls, and during the sacrifice
a curtain is drawn before the shrine, where the
immovable stone image of the goddess is located ;
but, on the other hand, the metal image, used in
processions, is taken out before the sacrifice begins,
carried on a wooden lion, and placed on four stone
pillars specially erected for the purpose outside the
temple, about four or five yards from the place where
the buffaloes are killed. No curtain is drawn before
this image : the sacrifice is performed in full view
of the goddess. It is a curious little compromise
between ancient custom and Brahman prejudice.

Another village. At another village I found that
Brahman ideas had taken one step further in the worship
of Madura-Kallamman, as no animal sacrifices of any
kind are offered there to the goddess herself, but only
to Periyanna-svami, a male deity residing on the top
of a hill some three miles away from her shrine ; and
even there the pujaris lamented that, owing to the
degeneracy of the age, offerers now take away both
head and carcass for their own use, instead of leaving
the head, as was done in better days, to be the
perquisite of the pujaris. At one village I was told

108 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

that there used to be buffalo sacrifices some twenty
years ago ; but the people did not know to what deity
they were offered, and none are ever offered now.

Pullambadi) Trichina poly District. At Pullambadi,
a village of some size in the Trichinopoly district,
I was told that Madura-Kali only accepts Vedic? i.e.
orthodox, sacrifices. All animal sacrifices, therefore,
are made to Madurai-Viran or Karuppu, her male
guardians, and a curtain is drawn before Madura-Kali
while they are being offered. The pujari in this village
collects the blood of the animals in an earthen pot,
mixes it with rice and makes it up into little balls.
Then, possessed by Karuppu or Madurai-Viran, he
takes the pot and runs round the temple enclosure, and
at each corner throws up a ball of rice and blood, which
is carried off by Karuppu or Madurai-Viran (so the
people firmly believe) and never falls down. The
Munsiff, who was quite a well-educated man, assured me
that this was a fact, and that he had seen it with his
own eyes — only, as he admitted, the ceremony takes
place in the dark !

Vallum, Tanjore District. Buffaloes are offered in
some villages of the Tanjore district both to Kaliamman
and Pidari. Where the sacrifice is strictly performed,
as at Vallum, the pujari, who is a Siidra, lives only on
milk and fruit, and eats only once a day for a whole
month beforehand, and on the day of the sacrifice puts
the kapu2 on his right wrist before he takes hold of the
sacrificial sword. It is supposed that he is first inspired
by the deity before he can kill the victim. He cuts off
the head sometimes in one blow, and sometimes in two
or three. Nothing is done with the blood, and both
head and carcass are buried in a pit near the shrine.
The dung of the victim is mixed with water, and poured
over the image of the deity. In some villages in the
Tamil country it is customary to take the entrails of the
victim and hang them round the pujari 's neck and put

1 This word literally means consistent with the Vedas.
1 See p. 100.

WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL COUNTRY 109

the liver in his mouth during the procession,1 when the
rice and blood is sprinkled through the village, and
sometimes part of the entrails is cooked with rice and
presented before the image. At one village I found
that, after this procession has gone round the houses,
it passes on to the burning ghat,2 where the entrails
are taken from the pujan's neck and the liver from his
mouth ; and both are laid down with some curry and
rice, which is afterwards eaten by a few of the low-
caste people. These extremely repulsive processions,
however, are not, as in the Telugu country, especially
connected with buffalo sacrifices.

Another village. An unfeeling custom prevails in
one village that I came across, which is considerably
worse than seething a kid in its mother's milk. When
a pig is sacrificed to Angalamman, its neck is first cut
slightly at the top and the blood allowed to flow on to
some boiled rice placed on a plantain leaf, and then the
rice soaked in its own blood is given to the pig to eat.
If the pig eats it, the omen is good. If not, the omen
is bad. But in any case the pig has its head cut off by
a Sudra pujari. In some villages the blood of the pig,
offered to Angalamman, is mixed with boiled rice,
taken to the burning ghat, where the dead bodies are
burned, and thrown into the air at night as an offering
to the spirits that hover round the place.

Pudukkottai sub-division, Trichinopoly District.
Among other curkms applications of the blood of
animals, not the least interesting and significant is the
one that prevails in nearly all the villages of the
Pudukkottai taluq of the Trichinopoly district, where
it is the custom for all the villagers to dip cloths in the
blood of animals slain simply for food, and hang them
up on the eaves of their houses to protect the cattle
against disease. This is probably a relic of an age
when the eating of animal food under any circumstances
had a religious significance.

1 See above, p. 52, and below, p. 148.

2 The place where the dead are burned.

110 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

Pullambadi, Trichinopoly District. It is refreshing
to turn to a custom connected with the worship of
village deities which can make some pretence to
practical utility. In the village of Pullambadi, at the
shrine of Kulanthalamman, whose festival has already
been described,1 an interesting custom prevails, which
seems to be not uncommon in those parts. When
a creditor cannot recover a debt, he writes out a state
ment of his claim against his debtor on dried palmyra
leaves, presents it to the goddess, and hangs it up on
a spear before her image. If the claim is just and the
debtor does not pay, it is believed that he will be
afflicted with sickness and terrifying dreams, and that
in his dreams the goddess will warn him to pay the debt
at once. If, however, he disputes the claim, then he
in turn writes out his statement of the case and hangs
it up on the same spear. The deity then decides which
statement is true and afflicts the perjurer with dreams
and misfortunes till the false statement is withdrawn.
When the claim is acknowledged, the debtor brings the
money to the pujari, who places it before the goddess,
and then sends for the creditor and informs him that
the debt is paid. All the money thus paid into the
temple coffers is handed over to the various creditors
daring the festival in April or May, after deducting the
amount due to the temple treasury. This is certainly
a simple method of doing justice in the matter of
debts, and probably just as effective as the more
elaborate and more expensive processes of our courts
of Jaw. I was told that about ten creditors come to
the temple every year, and that the temple had made
about Rs. 3,000 as its commission on the debts collected
during the last thirty years. Before that time the
people came and stated their claims to the goddess
orally, promising to give her a share if the debts were
recovered ; but some thirty years ago the system of
written statements was introduced, which, evidently,
has proved far more effectual in the settlement of just

1 See above, p. 102.

WORSHIP IN THE TAMIL COUNTRY 111

claims and much more profitable to the temple. To
the practical British mind this seems the one really
sensible ceremony connected with the worship of the
village deities in South India.

CHAPTER VII

FOLKLORE OF THE VILLAGE GODS
OF SOUTH INDIA1

A FEW specimens of the folklore connected with
the village deities will serve to throw some light on the
religious ideas of the people, the antiquity of the village
deities themselves, the struggles that have taken place
in former years between the worship of these primitive
goddesses and the more modern cults of Siva and
Vishnu, and the efforts made in the later times to
connect the ruder village deities with the more
dignified gods and goddesses worshipped by the
Brahmans.

Many of the stories are wild and fantastic, marked
by a thoroughly Indian extravagance and exaggeration;
some seem to be faint echoes of actual events in the
past ; and many of the details were evidently invented
to account for pieces of ritual, the meaning of which
had been forgotten. Here is one which probably pre
serves the traditional story of some palace tragedy and
the conversion of the victim into a local deity and also
the memory of some attempt made to put down a
primitive form of worship.

Mlnac hiamman of Madura. In Madura during
the time of the Pandya dynasty, there was a wicked
irreligious king called Pandian. In his pride and
presumption he closed the temple of Mmachiamman,"
the renowned local goddess. She was enraged at this,

1 The story of Amraavaru in this chapter is reprinted from an
article in the Nineteenth Century, by kind permission of the Editor.

2 Sanskrit, MmakshI, fish-eyed, an epithet of the wife of
Siva, probably meaning with love-filled eyes.

FOLKLORE 113

and, in order to take vengeance, became incarnate as a
new-born infant. King Pandian, who greatly desired to
have a child, one day found the deity incarnate as a
little girl, lying in the palace, with a very curious brace
let on her arm, which was the exact copy of one
belonging to his wife. He wished to adopt the child,
but the astrologers warned him that she would bring
evil upon his house, so he had her put in a basket and
cast into the river. A merchant picked the basket out,
brought her up as his own daughter, and called her
Kannahai. Shortly before this, it happened that the
god Siva also became incarnate, as another merchant
living at Kaveripampatinam, a village at the mouth of
the river Kaveri. Hearing of the girl's mysterious
origin, he went and married her. After some years he
became very poor, and, in spite of his wife's remon
strances, took her strange bracelet to Madura to sell it.
It happened that King Pandian's wife had lost her
bracelet, which exactly resembled this one, a few days
before this. So the merchant was arrested on the
charge of stealing it, brought before the king and put to
death. In a few days, his wife, Kannahai, went to
Madura, heard what had happened, took the form of
Thurgai,1 the demon-killing goddess, and slew Pandian.
Since then she has been worshipped by the people.
The slaughter of Pandian created in her a desire for
bloodshed, and she is now a deity whom it is thought
prudent to propitiate.

Madurai-Viran. The following story is current
about Madurai-Viran in the folklore of South India.
He was a soldier in the service of the Naick King of
Madura, some centuries ago. The daughter of the king
fell in love with him. So Madurai-Viran gave up his
position and all his prospects of promotion and went off
with the king's daughter. After their death both
Madurai-Viran and the king's daughter were deified and
worshipped. Madurai-Viran is also known as Patinet-

1 Durga, one of the names of Kali, the wife of !§iva, who got
this name because she killed a violent demon named Durga.

8

114 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

tampadi Karuppan, or the guard of the eighteen steps,
because, in the courtyard of the Azhagirisami temple,
which is one of the richest shrines in all India, there
is a flight of eighteen steps, nine of which lead up
to a platform on one side while nine lead down from
it on the other. On the platform is a huge image
of Karuppan, twenty feet high, with enormous eyes as
big as umbrellas. The image is covered with spears,
guns and arms, which people who have made vows
come and offer to Karuppan. The room where the
treasures of the temple are kept is locked up every
night, and the key, instead of being taken away, is
placed on the platform in front of the image. It
seems an invitation to burglars ; but nobody would
ever dare to take the treasure which is guarded by
Karuppan. It is said, in the folklore of the country,
that some centuries ago eighteen Mayavis, or magi
cians, so called from the illusion, maya, which they
produce in the minds of people, came to the shrine of
Azhagiri with the intention of carrying away the
essence of the sanctity of the shrine and transporting it
elsewhere. Their idea was to carry away the spiritual
essence of the god in a wooden cylinder. The god
Azhagar, the beautiful one, became aware of the plot
to carry away his essence, and so he entered into the
body of a small boy, and by his mouth informed the king
of the intended outrage and asked him to prevent it.
He also told the king that the Mayavis would render
themselves invisible by a black paste which they put
on their foreheads. (This paste is generally made by
a distillation of the head of a first-born child that has
died, with some other ingredients. If, therefore, a
first-born child dies, people generally bury it carefully,
in the backyard of their houses, to prevent the head
being taken away by magicians for this purpose.) The
king consulted Ramanuja, who was his family priest,
and Ramanuja advised him to shut the doors of the
temple and then pour boiling rice-water into the courtyard
so that the steam arising from it might melt the paste.
This was done, and the Mayavls, becoming visible, were

FOLKLORE 115

arrested by the king's soldiers and put to death, and
each one was buried under one of the eighteen steps
leading up to the platform on which the image of
Karuppan stands, as a solemn warning to all liars and
thieves. Civil suits in the Madura district are con
stantly brought to the temple to be settled by refer
ence to Karuppan. If a man will swear in the
presence of the image that his claim is a just one, the
claim is admitted to be true, as it is supposed that no one
would dare to swear falsely before Karuppan.

One of the many stories current about Mariamma,
the goddess of small-pox, is as follows : — One of the
nine great Rishis in the olden days, named Piruhu, had
a wife named Nagavali, equally famed for her beauty
and her virtue. One day, when the Rishi was away
from home, the Trimurti1 came to visit her, to see
whether she was as beautiful and virtuous as reported.
Not knowing who they were, and resenting their
intrusion, she had them changed into little children.
They naturally took offence, and cursed her, so that her
beauty faded away, and her face became dotted with
marks like those of the small-pox. When Piruhu
returned, and found her thus disfigured, he drove her
away, and declared that she should be born a demon in
the next world, and cause the spread of a disease, which
would make people like herself. In memory of the
change which Piruhu found in her, she was called
Mari, i.e. changed, in the next birth. When she was
put away, it is said that a washerwoman took care of
her, and that in consequence she was also called Uppai
(a washerman's oven). I may remark that a totally
different derivation of the word Mari was given me in
Mysore.2

Another story about the origin of Mariamma is that
she was the wife of the Tamil poet Tiruvalluvar, who
was a Pariah, that she got small-pox and went from
house to house begging for food and fanning herself
with margosa leaves to keep off the flies from her sores.

1 See p. 24, note. • See above, p. 29.

116 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

When she recovered, the people worshipped her as the
goddess of small-pox, and hung up margosa leaves over
their doors to keep the small-pox away.

Quite a different story about Mariamma was given
me by an Indian Christian, who was told it by his Hindu
father. According to this legend, Mariamma was the
mother of Parasurama, one of the incarnations of Vishnu,
and wife of Jamadagni, a famous Rishi (Vedic seer).
She was so chaste in mind that she could carry water in
a mass without any vessel, and her wet cloth would fly
up into the air and remain there till it was dry. One
day, as she was coming home from bathing, some
of the Gandharvas, or heavenly singers, flew over
her, and she saw their reflection in the ball of water
in her hand. She could not help admiring their
beauty ; and, through this slight lapse from the perfect
ideal of chastity, she lost her power, the water flowed
down to the ground, and her cloth fell from the sky.
So she arrived home with no water and with a wet
cloth. The Rishi questioned her as to the meaning
of this and she confessed her fault. Her stern
husband ordered her son Parasurama to take her into
the wilderness and cut off her head. So the son
took his mother away, but when they came to the
appointed place Mariamma met a Pariah women, and in
her longing for sympathy embraced her in her arms.
So Parasurama cut off both their heads together and
went back in great sorrow. His father promised him
any reward he chose to ask in return for his obedience :
so Parasurama asked that his mother might be restor
ed to life. The father granted his request and gave
him some water in a vessel and a cane, telling him to
put his mother's head on her body, sprinkle the water
on her, and tap her with the cane. In his eager haste
he put his mother's head on the body of the Pariah
woman and vice versa, and restored them both to life.
The woman with the Brahman head and Pariah body
was afterwards worshipped as Mariamma ; while the
woman with the Pariah head and Brahman body was
worshipped as the goddess Yellamma. To Yellamma

FOLKLORE 117

buffaloes are sacrificed ; but to Mariamma goats and
cocks, but not buffaloes.

The story is an interesting one, because it probably
describes the fusion of the Aryan and Dravidian cults in
the days when the Aryans first found their way into
South India. A Pariah body with a Brahman head is an
apt description of the cult of Siva, while a Pariah head
with a Brahman body might well describe some of the
cults of the ancient Dravidian deities, modified by
Brahman ideas and influences. The fact that the deity
to whom the buffalo is offered was the one with the
Pariah head shows that the buffalo sacrifice was
specially characteristic of the old Dravidian religion,
and suggests that the buffalo was the totem of the
Pariahs.

The Buffalo-Sacrifice. Another quaint story, that
is found all over the Telugu country in various forms,
attempts to account for the prominent part taken by
the Pariahs in the worship offered to the village deities,
aud also to explain some strange features in the ritual.
In ancient days, the story runs, there lived a karnam,
i.e. a village accountant, in a village to the east. He
was blind, and had only one daughter. A Pariah, well
versed in the Vedas, came to the village in the disguise
of a Brahman. The elders of the village were deceived
and induced the blind karnam to give his daughter to
him in marriage, that he might succeed to the office of
karnam in due time. The marriage was celebrated by
Brahman rites, and the karnam's daughter bore sons
and daughters to her Pariah husband, without any
suspicion arising in her mind as to his origin. After a
time a native of the Pariah's own village came to the
place where they were living, and recognized the Pariah
disguised as a Brahman. Seeing, however, that he was
a man of influence, he said nothing to the villagers, but
went and told the Pariah's old mother. As he was her
only son, the old woman set out in search of him, and
came to the village where he lived, and sat down by the
well used by caste people. The Pariah happened to go
there, and recognized his mother ; so he took her to a

118 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

barber, had her head shaved, passed her off as a Brahman
widow, and brought her to his house, telling his wife
that she was his mother and was dumb. He took the
precaution strictly to enjoin her not to speak, lest her
speech should betray them. One day the wife ordered
a meal with a dish called Savighai (wheat flour baked
with sugar and made into long strings) as a mark of
respect to her mother-in-law. During the meal, the
mother, forgetting the injunction of silence, asked her
son what the Savighai was, saying it looked like the
entrails of an anima!. The wife overheard the remark,
and her suspicions were aroused by the fact that her
mother-in-law could speak, when her husband had said
that she was dumb, and did not know a common Brahman
dish like Savighai ; so she watched their conduct, and
felt convinced that they belonged to a low caste, and
were not Brahmans at all. Accordingly, she sent their
children to school one day, when her husband was away
from home, managed to get rid of the mother-in-law
for a few hours, and then set fire to the house and
burnt herself alive. By virtue of her great merit in
thus expiating the sin she had involuntarily committed,
she reappeared in the middle of the village in a divine
form, declared that the villagers had done her great
wrong by marrying her to a Pariah, and that she would
ruin them all. The villagers implored mercy in abject
terror. She was appeased by their entreaties, con
sented to remain in the village as their village goddess,
and commanded the villagers to worship her. When
she was about to be burnt in the fire, she vowed that
her husband should be brought before her and beheaded,
that one of his legs should be cut off and put in his
mouth, the fat of his stomach put on his head, and a
lighted lamp placed on the top of it. (These are details
of the buffalo sacrifice, which has been already
described, and this part of the story was evidently
composed to explain the ritual, of which the true
meaning had long been forgotten.) The villagers
therefore seized the husband, stripped him naked, took
him in procession round the village, beheaded him in

FOLKLORE 119

her presence, and treated his leg and the fat of his
stomach as directed. Then her children came on the
scene, violently abused the villagers and village officers,
and told them that they were the cause of their mother's
death. The deity looked at her children with favour,
and declared that they should always be her children,
and that without them no worship should be offered to
her. The Asadis1 claim to be descendants of these
children, and during the festivals exercise the hereditary
privilege of abusing the villagers and village officers in
their songs. After being beheaded, the husband was
born again as a buffalo, and for this reason a buffalo is
offered in sacrifice to Uramma, the village goddess.

A Tragic Tale." Such ceremonies as the buffalo-
sacrifice, gruesome as they seem, when witnessed in
broad daylight, with the accompaniments of devil-
music, bell-ringing and shouting, or rather shrieking,
are much more awe-inspiring when seen at night, and
are likely to impress a stranger in an unpleasant manner,

as the following will show. A was a stranger to

the country and its ways. He was returning home late
one night, guided along his path by the uncertain rays
of a young moon. Missing his way, he strayed towards
the shrine of the village goddess ; and when passing
the low walls of the temple his attention was suddenly
arrested by a heart-rending moan, seemingly uttered by
some one in great distress, inside the walled enclosure.
Impelled by thoughts of rendering help to a fellow

creature in distress, A approached the temple wall,

and looking over it, saw the prostrate form of a young
and handsome female, of the better class of Hindus,
lying motionless as death on the stone pavement.
Thoughts of dark intrigues and mysterious murders of
a decidedly Eastern type impelled him to climb over
the wall ; and he was bending over the woman, his hand
stretched out in the act of raising up what he believed
was the lifeless remains of the victim of some ghastly

1 See above, p. 44.

1 This story appeared in the Madras Mail.

120 THE VILLAGE GODS OP SOUTH INDIA

tragedy, when, quick asligh tning, a gaunt and spectral
object, almost nude, bearded to the knee, with head
covered by matted tufts of hair and presenting a hideous
appearance, emerged from the deep shadows around.
The figure held a naked sword in one hand and a bunch
of margosa leaves in the other, and bounding up to

A , peremptorily, and with a glance whose meaning

could not be mistaken, motioned him away.

A— - was only too glad to retreat as fast as he had
come, his enthusiasm not a little chilled ; and he leapt
over the wall into the pathway, where he met a police
man going his rounds. A — — detained the policeman in
order to see the end of the mysterious pantomime that
was enacting before the idol, and enquired of him the
meaning of the presence there of the woman alone and at
that time of night, and of all the rest he saw. He was
told that the woman was a matron of a respectable
Hindu family, who, having had no children since her
marriage, had come, by the advice of her elders, to
invoke the assistance of the goddess, as she was
credited with the power of making women fertile, and
by prayers and offerings prevail on her to make her
the mother of a son, and thus save her from the
displeasure of her husband, \vho frequently rated her on
her barrenness. The grotesque figure which had so
terrified A— - was the village pujari, and a noted exor-
ciser of evil spirits ; and he was then exercising his art
over the terrified woman in attempting to drive away
the malignant spirit that possessed her, and had
thereby rendered her childless. It is said to be a
common belief among many Hindus that barrenness
in females is sometimes the result of possession by
evil spirits, some of whom have to be propitiated, while
others are terrified into leaving their victims. In this
case it was a demon of the latter kind, and that accounted
for the pujari's appearance, in all the majesty and terror
of his office as exorcist, sword in hand, to coerce the
unwilling one to take his flight.

Just then the woman emitted another blood-curdl
ing shriek, and the pujari, coming forward, demanded,

FOLKLORE 121

in a loud and threatening voice, if the payee (devil) had
left her. Receiving no reply, he flourished his sword
over the prostrate form, muttered some incantations,
and struck the woman with the margosa leaves in his
hand. He then bade her rise and stand before the idol,
which she did in a supplicatory attitude, with head bent
and hands crossed, while he proceeded to offer up
prayers to the goddess to aid him in driving away the
stubborn intruder, after which he bade the woman make
her offerings and depart in peace. The woman left the
temple staggering, so exhausted had she become under
the mental strain to which she had been subjected in

the course of the exorcism. A had seen Hindu

superstition in all its nakedness, and the effect of it had
been heightened by every circumstance that could made
it awe-inspiring — the sombre shadows of night, the dim
flickering of the temple light that threw a ray like a
sanctuary lamp, the silence, except when broken by the
woman's moans; all helped to impress him deeply.

Frequently, while worshipping at the shrine, it
happens that one of the more spiritual of the worship
pers becomes possessed of the goddess, and commences
to execute the usual devil dance, with dilated eyes,
distended nostrils, and a frame suddenly endued with
extraordinary activity and strength, proud to act as the
mouthpiece of the goddess and to give out her oracles.
It not seldom happens also that unscrupulous characters
take advantage of this favouring by the deity, to impose
on the ignorant masses by practising on their credulity.
An example of the way in which the deity of an aboriginal
family might become a deity of a conquering race and
acquire a widespread popularity, is seen in the history
of Koniamma in the Coimbatore district. The story
goes that at a very remote date, when the tract now
occupied by the town of Coimbatore was forest land,
inhabited by aboriginal hill-tribes known as Malaisar,
i.e. dwellers in the mountain, a certain man, named
Koyan, who was of some repute among the aborigines,
dwelt there and worshipped a goddess who was called
after his name, Koyanamma. The name was gradually

122 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

changed, first into Kovaiamma, and then into Koniamma.
After some years she became the village deity of the
Malaisar, and a temple was built in her honour, with a
stone image of the goddess in front of it. In the course
of time, a Hindu king, named Mathe Raja, happened to
go there on a hunting expedition, and, finding the spot
very fertile, colonized the country with his own
subjects. Gradually a flourishing town grew up, and
Koniamma was adopted as one of the deities of the new
colony. Centuries afterwards, Tippu Sultan, the Tiger
of Mysore, when he passed by the town during one of
his marches, broke down the image and demolished the
temple. The glory of persecution greatly increased the
fame of the goddess. The head, which had been broken
off the image, was brought back to the town, a new
temple built, and in a few years the goddess became
very popular over the whole district. Her title to
divine honour rests upon the legend that she killed a
certain demon, who was devastating the land and took
the form of a buffalo when he attacked her. She is
regarded as a benevolent being, who does not inflict
diseases, but is capable of doing much good to the
people when duly honoured. She is worshipped only
at Coimbatore. This word is the English form of the
Tamil Koyamputhur.

Some of the legends bear witness to the bitter
conflict between the aboriginal inhabitants of the land,
generally described as demons or Rakshathas (Sanskrit
Rakshases) and the superior races which conquered
them, whether Turanian or Aryan.

The legend of Savadamma, the goddess of the
weaver caste in the Coimbatore district, is a case in
point. It runs as follows : Once upon a time, when
there was fierce conflict between "the men" and the
Rakshathas, "the men," who were getting defeated,
applied for help to the god Siva, who sent his wife,
Parvati,1 as an avatara or incarnation, into the world to

1 Kali has many names, among which Parvati, i.e. the
mountain goddess, is one of the commonest.

FOLKLORE 123

help them. The avatara enabled them to defeat the
Rakshathas ; and, as the weaver caste were in the
forefront of the battle, she became the goddess of the
weavers, and was known in consequence as Savadamma,
a corruption of Sedar Amma, Sedar or Chedar being
another title for the weavers. It is said that her
original home was in the north of India near the
Himalayas.

Another deity, whose worship is confined to a
particular caste in South India, and about whom a
similar legend is told, is Kanniha Paramesvari (i.e.
supreme goddess), the goddess of the Komatis, or
traders. The story goes that in ancient days there was
bitter hatred between the Komatis, who claim to belong
to the Vaisya1 caste, and the Mlecchas,1 or barbarians.
When the Komatis were getting worsted in the struggle
for supremacy, they requested Parvati, the wife of
Siva, to come and deliver them. It so happened that
about that time Parvati was incarnate as a girl of the
Komati caste, who was exceedingly beautiful. The
Mlecchas demanded that she should be given in mar
riage to one of their own people, and the refusal of the
Komatis led to severe fighting, in which the Komatis,
owing to the presence of the avatara of Siva among
them, were completely victorious, and almost exter
minated their enemies. After their victory, the Komatis
entertained doubts as to the chastity of the girl, and
compelled her to purify herself by passing through fire.
This she did, and disappeared in the fire, resuming her
real shape as Parvati, and taking her place beside Siva
in heaven. Her last words were a command to the
Komatis to worship her, if they wished their caste to
prosper.

It will be noticed from these stories that there has
been a strong tendency in the Tamil country, where
Brahman influence is strong, to connect the old village
deities with the Hindu pantheon, and especially with the
god Siva, the most popular deity in South India. So,

1 Seep. 19 n.

124 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

in the Tanjore district, the chief goddesses of the large
tribe of village deities are seven sisters, who are
regarded as emanating from Parvati,1 the wife of Siva.

Revenge by Suicide. In the Warangal taluq of the
Hyderabad State there are numerous slabs of stone
with figures of a man in the act of catting his throat
carved on them in bas-relief. The story goes that in
ancient days a king of Warangal promised some Wudders
(navvies) a sum of gold for digging a large tank.
When they appeared before him for payment, he offered
them silver instead ; and they went away very sad and
angry, and came back again a few days afterwards and
all cut their throats in the presence of the king, so that
their spirits might haunt and torment him for the rest
of his life. They have been worshipped from that day
to this, and are among the most popular gods of the
district. It was a truly Indian method of taking revenge,
and I have often heard of similar acts of retaliation even
in modern times.

Basavanna of the Badagas. The following stories,
current among the Badagas on the Nilgiri Hills, in
South India, may possibly preserve, in a perverted
form, the memory of some trivial incidents, which the
superstitious fancy of the villagers turned into signs
and wonders. The village of Kateri is about ten miles
from Ootacamund, and the Kateri falls have been
utilized to generate the electric power that now works
the Government cordite factory in the broad valley on
the other side of the hills. But long before cordite or
electric po\ver were thought of, when the Muham-
madans ruled in Mysore, one of the villagers of Kateri
went down to the plains to pay tribute. When he went
to a river to perform puja (worship) to a lingam, the
emblem of the god Siva, he found on the river bank a
stone in the form of an ox. He put it in his pocket,
intending to give it to his children as a toy. But when he
got home, he forgot all about the stone ; and it remained
in his pocket till he went down to another river near

1 Seep. 122 n.

FOLKLORE 125

Kateri to perform puja again. As he came to the bank,
he touched his pocket and there found the stone. He
took it out, put it down on the bank, and went to do his
puja. When he came back, it was gone ! This greatly
astonished him. But when he returned to the river
next morning, lo and behold ! he saw on the bank the
stone turned into a real live ox! Then the ox went off
to a neighbouring village, Naduhatty, and there fought
with another ox. The owner of this other ox killed the
aggressor ; but no sooner had he done so, than he turned
upside down, and stood on his head with his heels in
the air, unable to move. The villagers were filled with
astonishment, as well they might be, at this extraordi
nary conduct ; but the man who had found the stone told
them that the slaughtered ox was really a god, which
he had brought up from the plains, without knowing
what it was, to give to his children. The villagers
were in great alarm at this ; but, when the man returned
to his hut, there was the stone figure of the ox, with
one of its horns broken and a spear-wound on its left
side. The village pujari was hastily sent for, and he
declared that a daily offering of milk must be made to
the stone figure. For some time this was done ; then
the owner neglected the puja, and the stone promptly
turned back into a live ox, which attacked the villagers,
and would not let any one enter the shed where it stood.
The villagers, however, made a hole in the roof, and
poured milk upon it from above, and once more it
turned into stone, and stands there in the same shed to
this day. Warned by the experience of the past, the
villagers were careful to make the daily offering of milk,
lest it should once more turn into a troublesome ox.
The name of the god is Basavanna.1

The story reads like a description of a scene from a
pantomime, when the harlequin appears on the stage.
But it is sober truth to the Badagas of Kateri and the
neighbouring villages. It was told to me by the only

1 Basava (Sanskrit vfishabha} stands for bull or ox in the
South Indian languages,

126 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

Badaga who at that time had matriculated at the Madras
University.

Mahaliiiga of t/ie Badagas. Another story current
among the Badagas is equally trivial, and is a sample of
many local traditions that are current among them. A
cow, the story runs, had a calf. She would give no
milk, however, for her master, but ran off to a shola
(forest) close by his house. He followed her one day,
and watched to see why she went there, and saw her go
to a stone image and pour over it the milk from her
udders. He then went and fetched a spade, and tried
to dig the image up, but could not reach the bottom of
it ; and whenever the spade touched the stone, it drew
blood. He went and told the story in the village, so
the villagers built a shrine over the image, and
worshipped it as the god Mahalinga.1

Hathay of Paranganad. The tradition of the
goddess Hathay, i.e. grandmother, probably preserves
the memory of a real event, as the worship of men or
women who have died violent deaths or in a tragic way
is common all over South India. About a hundred
years ago, a man had a daughter whom he wished to
marry to a man in the Paranganad division of the
Nilgiris. The girl refused, and the father insisted. So
at last she went to the village tank (a large pond), sat
under a tree, first bathed and then threw herself into
the water and was drowned. One of the men in the
Paranganad division afterwards saw the woman in a
dream, and she told him that she was not a huinan
being but a goddess, an incarnation of Parvati, the wife
of Siva.

This story illustrates the origin of many deities in
India, and also the way in which these local goddesses
are tacked on to the religion of the Brahmans by being
made wives, or incarnations of the wife, of Siva.j

Ammavaru, or Ankamma. During one of my tours
on the East Coast, north of Madras, I got a copy of a
manuscript on palm leaves belonging to a village pujart

1 I.e. Great Linga, the lingo, being Siva's phallic emblem.

FOLKLORE 127

which contains the story of the village goddess Amma-
varu, now worshipped as Arikamma. The story is
recited by the Asadis during the annual festivals. It is
a strange, rambling tale, full of weird details, describing
the birth of the newer deities, Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu,
and the struggle that ensued between the rival religions.
It is not improbable that it describes an attempt on the
part of the Brahmans to supplant the worship of the
village deity by the new cults and the revival of the
primitive religion through some epidemics or other
disasters. A bad epidemic of small-pox or cholera, just
at the time when the newer forms of worship had caused
the old deities to be neglected, would be quite sufficient
to revive their popularity and give rise to a fantastic
myth describing the event. The myth begins by des
cribing the extreme antiquity of Ammavaru. "Even
before the existence of the four Yugas, i.e. ages, before
the birth of the nine Brahmans, when sleep did not exist
in towns and villages, when the Yugas had no time,
before the birth of Mahesvara (i.e. great God, a title of
Siva), before the appearance of sky and lightning,
before the birth of Gautama Buddha and the sages,
before the appearance of Satyasagara,1 before the
appearance of water reservoirs, such as tanks and
lakes, when there were no roads, streets or lanes to
towns and villages, before the creation of the world,
even before the coming into existence of wells to be
defiled by the spittle of fishes, and before the Narayaga2
Ammavaru came into existence, three eggs were laid
by Ammavaru in the sea of milk, one by one in three
successive ages. The egg laid first got spoilt, the next
filled with air, and only the third was hatched. This
egg had three compartments, from which came the
Trimurti,3 Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. The lower half
of the egg was transformed into the earth and the upper
half became the sky. The king, who was the avatara,

1 Satyasagara = Ocean of truth.

a Narayaga is the term used for human sacrifice; Narayaga
Ammavaru is the goddess worshipped by human sacrifice.
8 See above, p. 24 n.

128 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

i.e. incarnation, of Vishnu, was fed on butter ; Brahma
was made to live on turmeric ; and Siva was fed with
the milk of Ammavaru. Then, as they grew up, she
made each of the gods put on his forehead characteristic
religious marks, and finally built three towns, one for
each to live in, and a fourth for herself."

This probably preserves a tradition of the relation
of the popular Hindu religion of modern days to the
older worship of the village deities. It is doubtless
true that the Brahmans gained the victory over their
enemies the Buddhists by borrowing largely from the
pre-Aryan religions, which had a great hold over
the masses of the people. This may be practically
expressed by saying that Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva
sprang from an egg laid by a village deity, and that
she built for them the sacred cities which were the
centres of their worship.

The goddess took special pains to protect her own
city. She enclosed it with walls of bronze, brass,
and gold ; posted at the gates several thousand spirits
of various sorts, and among them, a barber, a washer
man, and a potter. It seems odd to find these humble
members of village society in such exalted company ;
but it is explained by the fact that they are the people
who in many parts of South India take a prominent part
in the sacrifices offered to the village deities at the
annual festivals.

After a time, Ammavaru heard that the three
kings, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, were neglecting
her worship ; so she determined to exhibit her power
by destroying their towns. Her resolve was strength
ened by an insult offered her by Siva. The god one
day called his servant and asked him why the people
were neglecting the worship of Ammavaru, and was
told in reply that they were calling on his name instead.
He then bade his servant go to Ammavaru's town and
abuse her, which he did with a will. When she heard
of it she smiled grimly, " trimmed her moustaches,"
and waxed very wroth. She then dressed herself up in a
yellow cloth and yellow bodice, put on copper jewels, a

FOLKLORE 129

silver waistband, and tied a golden ornament on her
forehead, took a deer in one hand, a conch in the other,
a small drum in a third, and put a snake round her body
as a sacred thread.1 Thus attired, she called a durbar,
sat down on the dais, and declared that her puja
was neglected and she herself abused. After this
little speech she started off to Devagiri, the town of
Isvara or Siva, mounted on a jackal, and accompanied
with all kinds of weapons and palanquins. Drums
were sounded during the march. The investment of
of the town was a quaint proceeding. Besides several
kinds of animals, Ammavaru created GangH-bhavanl
(a fortified place with a ditch round it) and a sage
to conduct the siege. The military operations of the
sage were truly original. Seven rudrakshc? berries
were placed on the ground, and on these seven
bhadrakshls, i.e. a kind of bead in which are marks said
to resemble eyes, and on these needles were stuck to
support balls of sacred ashes.3 Through these balls
were driven steel spikes which supported a single-
headed rudraksha berry, with seeds of a sacred plant
on the top. The sage then put his head on the seeds and
raised his legs high up in the air. Birds built their
nests on his neck, beetles and bees made their homes
in his nose, plants of all kinds grew round him, and
cobras made their abode in his arm-pits. He remained
silent and spoke to no one.4 What exactly the purpose
or effect of these proceedings was does not appear ;

1 S*iva is often represented holding a deer by the hind legs in
one hand and a drum, called damaru, in the other ; and he
frequently has snakes about his neck and waist and in his hair.
The conch is one of Vishnu's symbols.

3 The berry of the Elaeocarpus Ganitrus is called rudraksha
and is used for making rosaries for the devotees of Siva.

' S*iva is usually represented as covered with sacred ashes,
and S*ivaite ascetics usually smear their bodies in the same way.

4 Hindu ascetics practise many austerities, tapas. Among
the more common forms are long-continued silence and the
remaining motionless in one posture until, we are told, beasts,
birds, and insects make their resting-place in the man's body.
The purpose of these practices is the gaining of boundless
miraculous power.

9

130 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

but apparently they were successful, as Ammavaru
moved steadily on, and appointed her sister to keep
people off the road, and then placed her sisters, the
hundred saktis,1 to keep watch, and also a twelve-
headed snake which coiled its body all round the town,
keeping its hooded heads just opposite the gate and
emitting poisonous fumes from its mouths. Then, as
she went on in her triumphant march, a mountain was
put on guard, forts were created, and Ammavaru
descended from her jackal and sat on a throne. A
horse was then brought her, drums were beaten, what
Shakespeare would call alarums and excursions took
place, and the sky was turned into a pestle and the earth
into a mortar. After this general upset of the universe,
Ammavuru made the dumb to sing her praises, created
some tents with little demons inside who did puja to
her, and so finally arrived at Devagiri. Apparently
this overwhelming display of military power and science
at first crushed all resistance. The heads of the kings
(Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva) who refused to worship
Ammavaru were cut off, also the heads of seven other
kings, and then all put on again ! One king's throne
was made red-hot like the fire in a potter's kiln, and his
hair made all bloody, while demons were set to watch
the corpses of the slain. Then Ammavaru afflicted
the unhappy citizens with many disasters and started off
to attack four other kings. Drums were sounded as
before and then a bloody battle ensued outside the
walls of Devagiri. Horses and elephants were slain by
Ammavaru, one king " felt a bad pain in his chest, as
if pierced with arrows, and pains in various parts of his
body," and died. Another king took a sword and
plunged it into the body of a third king, and both died.
Then all the horses and elephants and kings died, and
finally Ammavaru brought them all to life again,
and they all began to worship her. A year after,
drums were sounded again, and she marched with
her army to a tamarind tree, where she slept for

1 See p. 29 n. 1.

FOLKLORE 131

seven gadiyas (a gadi =r 24 minutes) on a cotton
mattress. Then nine kings, who had formerly wor
shipped Ammavaru, gave up doing so, and changed
the Vishnu marks on their foreheads for those of Siva.
This vexed Ammavaru, so she threatened to annihilate
the town of Devagiri and then swooned. When she
came to, she took a basket without a rim and some
herbs and fruits, transformed herself into an old woman
and walked to Devagiri. The watchman of the town
refused to help her, put her baskets on her head, threat
ened to have her beaten, and abused her soundly. She
caused a deep sleep to overpower him, tossed her
baskets into the air, caught them on her head, and
made her way to the gates of the town, which were
guarded north, south, east, and west by four huge
demons, with ten thousand crores1 of men holding
canes coloured green, and seven hundred crores
holding canes coloured red. A number of them
were fast asleep; but she roused them up and bade
them open the gates, as she wanted to sell her
tamarind and jack fruit in the town. One of them
got up and told her that baskets with fruits and
curds, beggars and mendicants, were not allowed in
the town, and added that the people of the town
were Lingayats,2 people of true faith and good
character. The goddess shouted, "O Sudra sisters,
living in the east street, O Brahman sisters of the
western street, O Kamma sisters of the southern
street, buy fruits from me. Old men eating my
fruit will become young and young ones very hand
some." The watchman was very angry at this, and
beat her with a green cane. The goddess threw down
her basket, which caused a great earthquake. Then
she first turned into a huge giantess and afterwards into
a parrot, and said to the watchman, "You did not
recognize me. You have forgotten my might ; I will
show my power." Ammavaru then disguised herself
as a Lingayat dressed in a reddish-brown cloth, took a

1 A crore is ten millions. 2 See p. 72 n.

132 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

wooden pot in her hand, put sacred ashes on her fore
head,1 tied the symbol of Siva2 on every part of her
body, sounded bells and conchs, and, saying aloud,
" Linga-nama-Sivaya,"3 approached the gates of Deva-
giri once more. All the people were amazed at her
devotion, prostrated themselves before her and offered
a seat, saying," O worthy woman, where do you come
from ? " Ammavaru replied," I am coming from Yata-
paliam. My name is Yati-dari-paduchu, and I am
coming from Chittangi land. I am alone without rela
tions in the world. I am a happy woman without a
husband." "Why do you come to Devagiri ? " they
asked. Ammavaru replied that during the krita yuga*
i.e. the golden age, Paramesvara (i.e. the Supreme,
here Siva) became a slave to Parvati (wife of Siva),
that he was living in Devagiri, and she had come to
pay her respects to him. The gate-keepers refused to
admit her till she had told the story of Siva and
Parvati. The goddess then told the story as follows :
On the wedding-day of Siva and Parvati the gold and
silver bracelets were tied to their wrists, pearls were
brought from the western ocean, festoons of fig leaves
were hung up, and a cloth was stretched as a screen
between Siva and his bride ; the faces5 of Brahma
were covered with sackcloth and twelve Vedas were
read : but an inauspicious muhurtam, i.e. moment, was
fixed and an inauspicious hour chosen for the ceremony.
After tying the tali (a small metal disk or ornament
suspended by a thread, the mark of a married woman)
round Parvati' s neck, Siva put his foot on her foot, and
she put her foot on his. Brahma saw the shadow of
Parvati's foot, was filled with unholy desires, and
disturbed the ceremony by unseemly conduct. Siva

1 !§ivaites wear sacred ashes smeared on the forehead in three
lines. See p. 137.

2 The phallic symbol, the linga whence Lingayat.

* " Reverence to S"iva," the sectarian mantra, or watchword.
4 The Hindus recognize a cycle of four ages, like the Greeks
and Romans.

* Brahma i usually represented with four faces

FOLKLORE 133

grew very angry, abused Brahma, and bit off one of his
heads. The head fastened on Siva's hand and remained
immovable. So he sent at once for a number of
Brahmans, and asked why he could not get it off.
They told him that it was because he had committed
murder, which is a most heinous crime, and suggested
that he should wander about as a beggar, and make
pilgrimage to Benares, Ramesvaram, and other sacred
places, and then receive alms directly from the hands
of Lakshmi (the wife of Vishnu). Siva then disguised
himself as a beggar, and wandered far and wide, and at
last came to Lakshmi, and cried out," O Adi Lakshmi I1
Alms ! Alms ! " She ordered her servants to take him
alms, but he refused to receive it except at her hands,
and said that Lakshmi was his sister. Then Lakshmi
bathed, ordered food to be prepared, and served him
herself, and at once the skull fell from Siva's hand to the
ground. Siva began to run away, but the skull begged
that some provision might be made for its future exis
tence, as it had lived on his hand for so many years.
Lakshmi then waved arati2 lights before Siva, and gave
curry and rice to the skull, which promptly fell towards
the north and broke in five pieces, murmuring, as it
broke that something must be done for it. Siva replied
that it might take hold of pregnant women, women
during confinement, and babies, and that this would
enable it to obtain worship and offerings.

Ammavaru then related how she herself had desired
marriage and gone to Vishnu, who sent her to Brahma,
who passed her on to Siva. She danced before Siva,
who promised to grant her wish, if she would give him
the three valuable things she possessed — a rug, some
betel leaves and a third eye. She gave them all to
Siva, who at once opened the third eye and reduced her
to ashes.3 Then, filled with regret at the rash act,

1 Adi means original, existing from the beginning.

J See above, p. 39.

' !§iva is always represented with a third eye set vertically in
his forehead. A Hindu myth tells how he reduced Kama, the
Hindu Cupid, to ashes with one glance of his third eye.

134 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

which involved the destruction of all womankind, he
collected the ashes and made them into the form of
three women, who became the wives of Siva, Vishnu,
and Brahma.

After telling this moving story, Ammavaru demand
ed entrance into the town, when she transformed her
self into a parrot and sat on a stone pillar. Many of
the inhabitants she caused to faint ; on many others
she sent fevers and other diseases. Then she flew to
the gopuram, i.e. the towered gateway of the temple,
where nine men were worshipping Siva with his
emblem in their hands. Suddenly the emblems became
red-hot in their hands, and, dropping them, the nine
men cried out," O Siva, you are powerless to-day ; now
we have lost faith in you. Before the moon rises, may
your temple be burnt to ashes." Siva, hearing their
cries, came up and threw some sacred ashes over them
and touched them with his cane. Then they all got up
and said to him, " O Isvara (i.e. Lord), listen to our
complaints. We have had enough of your puja. Some
calamity has befallen us. Give us leave and we will go
to our homes." Siva went off in anger to the gate
keepers and demanded why they had admitted strangers.
They replied that they had turned back an old woman
selling fruit, and only admitted a Lingayat woman,
because she was a devotee. Siva ordered one of the
demons to find her ; but Ammavaru transformed her
self into a girl of the Velama caste, and mixed with
the Velama women in the Brahman street, and the man
looked for her in vain. Then another was ordered to find
her ; but this time Ammavaru turned herself into a
parrot. When the man could not find her, he cried out,
"O goddess! Please come! You are the deity of my
ancestors. We hear that you have entered our town
in the form of a Lingayat." Then Ammavaru asked him
what kind of form he meant, saying, "I am your em
blem of life." Then the demon felt bad pains all over
his body, as though his chest and ribs were broken,
rose up high into the air, flapping his hands like wings,
caught hold of the parrot and brought her to Siva.

FOLKLORE 135

Siva complimented the demon on his success, but said
that a female deity should not be brought into his
presence. He commanded her to be tied to a red-
hot pillar of glass and crows with iron beaks to
peck at her. But no sooner was Ammavaru tied to
the pillar than it became quite cool and the beaks of
the crows dropped off. Seeing this, the nine worship
pers of Siva declared that the goddess was a powerful
deity, and determined to strike her all together on one
side. But their uplifted arms remained fixed in the air
and they could not move them. Siva then ordered
Ammavaru to be tied to the feet of an elephant and
dragged through the streets of the town ; but as soon
as she was tied to his feet, the elephant became stiff
and stood motionless as a pillar. Then Siva said that
she must be thrown on to a frying-pan and fried like
grain ; so they took her up and threw her on to red-hot
plates of glass, which at once became cool as water.
Ammavaru grew wild with anger at this treatment, and,
whirling round and round, became huge as a mountain,
and then once more turned into a parrot, and addressed
Siva thus : " O Siva ! You failed to recognize me, but
you will soon see my power. O rajas and princes !
Now at last will you worship me?" The rajas and
princes all cried out, "O Ammavaru! We will not
worship a female deity ; we will not lift our hands and
salute a goddess ; we will not chant any other name
except ' Linga-nama-Sivaya.'1 We will not think of
you as a goddess." Ammavaru replied, "Never mind
my worship. I am a daughter of Kasi-gotna. I
was born in Valampuri. I was bred at South Vira-
kambhodi. I am living at Ujjanimankalipatnam. I
was worshipped at Devagiri. I left Valampuri, and
came to rule at Ujjanimankali for a time. There are
nine Siva Nambis who used to worship me. They gave
up wearing tirumani marks (the religious mark of the
Vaishnavites on their foreheads) and took to sacred
ashes (one of the Sivaite marks). They are now

1 See p. 132 n. 3;

136 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

worshipping Siva in Panchalingala. Bring them to me,
and I will leave your town." The nine rajas replied
that they would do nothing of the kind. Then Amma-
varu in her wrath threatened to destroy the town.
Siva declared that under no circumstances should she
be worshipped as a goddess, and that she might do her
worst. Then Ammavaru did her worst and greatly
troubled the people. From east to west crows flew
over the town, in vast flocks. A strong wind arose, and
there was a storm of rain that lasted seven gadiyas
(a gadi = 24 minutes). The people caught colds, coughs,
and fevers, small-pox, and other epidemics spread
rapidly ; horses, elephants, and camels were afflicted
with disease ; pregnant women suffered severe pains ;
babies could not take their mothers' milk. For these
seven gadiyas the town suffered terribly. All the
gardens were destroyed, all flowers and plants were
destroyed by white ants, all leaves by insects and bugs;
all the wells and tanks were dried up. The dead bodies,
heaped upon carts, were carried out by the northern
gate to the burning ghat, five princesses swooned, and
at last the nine rajas repented and began to abuse Siva :
" Before the moon shines, may jTour throne become
red-hot ! May your matted hair, wet with Ganges
water,1 become red with blood! May your fortress
of Panchalinga take fire and burn ! May your pot
break into pieces ! May your necklace snap asunder !
May your cane, held by your son, split in the middle !
May you lose the Gariga on your head ! May your
gold and silver emblems be bathed in blood!" Siva
does not seem to have been a bit dismayed at this
dreadful curse. He went to the gates of Devagiri, sat
upon a golden chair and brought back to life all the
corpses, marked with the sacred ashes that were being
taken out through the northern gate. The other
corpses he left to their fate. Ammavaru then began to
think that Siva must indeed be great, but determined to

1 S"iva, as the great ascetic, wears his hair matted, and the
river Ganges falls down upon his head from heaven.

FOLKLORE 137

put him to another test. She created a field of sacred
plants, and made the plants assume the form of human
beings. Plucking some of these, she tied them together,
put them on a car and sent them to Siva. The god
threw some sacred ashes on the car, touched it with
his cane, and all the stalks became living men, chanting
"Kara, Kara,"1 i.e. Destroyer. When they asked for
food, they were told that they might wander over the
country, and would then get food in the shape of
offerings and sacrifices. Ammavaru then went off with
all her drums and instruments to Kunthalasaman, the
town of Brahma, where she hoped to find three kings
worshipping her. They all received her kindly, treated
her with great respect and worshipped her. Satisfied
and consoled with this, she returned to her own town
of Ujjanimankali. From there she once more went up
to Devagiri as an old woman, about a hundred years of
age, with fruit for sale, and, entering the town without
hindrance, began to sell fruits and flowers. The rajas
asked their price, and she said she would sell the
flowers for their weight in gold, and by this means took
away all the wealth of the town, while the nine kings
were doing puja to Siva. Then the nine kings came to
the town of Ankalathavatha (another name for Amma
varu) riding on clouds, to steal flowers from her garden.
As they were plucking the flowers, Ammavaru seized
them, took them off to an open space, where she had
erected stables of gold, silver and diamonds, and impaled
them in such a way that their blood could not curdle and
no flies could touch them. She then placed her steed,
the jackal, to guard the corpses, and then vanquished
her enemies.

I have given the story almost exactly as it is told in
the palm-leaf manuscript that was lent me to have
copied. It is a weird rambling piece of mythology;
but its interest lies in the light that it throws upon an
obscure page in the history of religious life in India.
We can see, beneath all its absurdity and extravagance,

1 An epithet of £iva.

138 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

the rise of a new form of religion side by side with the
older cults of the village deities, the dislike that was
felt by the upper classes for the worship of female
deities, the struggle that took place between the old
religion and the new, the varying phases of the conflict,
the way in which disease and famine drove the masses
back to the worship of their older deities, and then the
drawn battle, as Siva asserted his power and Ammavaru
vanquished her enemies, and both continued to receive
the worship of the people.

CHAPTER VIII

PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE WORSHIP OF
VILLAGE GODS

THE account given above of the rites and ceremonies
connected with the worship of the village deities in
South India does not pretend to be an exhaustive one.
It would require many bulky volumes to enumerate the
countless varieties of local use and custom prevailing in
the different villages, and the result would be wearisome
in the extreme ; but enough has been said, I think, to
give a fair idea of the general nature and character of
this phase of Hinduism, and to form a basis of com
parison, on the one hand, between the cult of the
village deities and the Brahmanical cults of Vishnu and
Siva, and, on the other hand, between the cults of village
deities existing among the Telugus, Canarese, and
Tamils ; and, at any rate, this brief sketch of the
religion of about 80 per cent, of the Hindu population
of South India may serve to dispel the idea that the
people of India are, as a body, a race of philosophers, or
that what is vaguely termed Hinduism is a system of
refined philosophy in the purity of its morality and
subtlety of its doctrines. Religious philosophy, un
doubtedly, has played a great part in the development
of the higher thought of the Indian people ; but in South
India, at any rate, the outlook of about 80 per cent, of the
population on the visible world in which they live, and
the invisible world which borders closely upon it, and
their ideas about God and religion are represented,
not by Hindu philosophy, but by the worship of their
grama-devatas.

Considerable caution must be used in drawing con-

140 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

elusions from the striking resemblances between the
ceremonies observed in the worship of village deities
among the Telugus, Canarese, and Tamils, as the value
of all evidence of this kind is largely discounted by the
unifying influence of the great Vijayanagar empire.
For about 250 years, from A.D. 1326 to A.D. 1565, the
whole of South India was united under this great
empire, which had its capital on the Tungabhadra River,
and formed the main bulwark of Hinduism against the
advance of the Muhammadans. The capital itself was
of vast extent, and gathered together men and women
of all races from every part of South India. It must
have formed, therefore, a great centre for the fusion of
different ideas and customs ; and, when the City of
Vijayanagar was captured and rased to the ground by
the Muhammadans in A.D. 1565, Tamils, Telugus, and
Canarese may well have carried home with them many
new ideas and customs borrowed from one another.
We cannot assume, therefore, that, because a custom is
widespread in the Tamil, Telugu, or Canarese country
now, it was necessarily widespread before the founda
tion of the Vijayanagar empire. Allowing, however,
for this possible borrowing of religious rites and
ceremonies, the resemblances between the rites in all
three countries are very striking. Such a curious cere
mony as that of cutting off the right fore-leg and put
ting it into the mouth of the victim, which is found to
exist all over the three countries in various villages
and towns, might possibly have been borrowed; but the
general resemblance in type, which underlies all local
differences of custom, can hardly have been due to this
cause, and the general impression left by a study of the
various festivals and sacrifices in the three countries
would be, I think, that they all belong to a common
system and had a common origin.

In the same way caution is needed in drawing con
clusions from the resemblances between the worship of
the village deities and the Brahmanical cults of Vishnu
and Siva. The two systems of religion have existed
side by side in the towns and villages for many centuries,

141

and the same people have largely taken part in both.
Naturally, therefore, they have borrowed freely from
one another. In the Tamil country the influence of
Brahmanism on the cult of the village deities is very
noticeable, and it is more than probable that many
ceremonies, which originally belonged to the village
deities, have been adopted by the Brahman priests.
No conclusions, therefore, can safely be drawn from the
folklore, which represents various village goddesses
as, in some way, connected with Siva. It is quite
possible that stories of this kind are simply due to a
desire to connect the less dignified village deities with
what was regarded as the higher form of worship con
trolled by the Brahmans. On the other hand, the
points of difference between the worship of the village
deities and that of Siva and Vishnu, which have been
noted in the introduction, are very strongly marked,
and clearly indicate that the two systems of religion
are quite distinct. The village goddesses are purely
local deities, inflicting or warding off diseases and
other calamities. They seem never to be regarded as
having any relation to the world as a whole, and their
worship is the religion of ignorant and uncivilized
people, whose thoughts do not travel beyond their
own surroundings and personal needs ; while Siva
and Vishnu represent a philosophic conception of
great forces at work in the universe, forces of
destruction and preservation, and their worship is a
religion that could only have originated among men
accustomed to philosophic speculation. They may have
borrowed many ideas, customs, and ceremonies from
the more primitive religion of the villages ; but the
foundation and motive of the whole system are to be
sought in the brain of the philosopher rather than in
the fears and superstitions of uneducated villagers. At
the same time, it is also true that morally the Brahmani-
cal system has sunk to lower depths than have been
reached by the cruder religion of the village people.
The worship of the village deities contains much that is
physically repulsive. The details of a buffalo sacrifice

142 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

are horrid to read about, and still worse to witness, and
the sight of a pujari parading the streets with the
entrails of a lamb round his neck and its liver in his
mouth would be to us disgusting ; and, doubtless, there
are much drunkenness and immorality connected with
the village festivals ; while the whole system of religion
is prompted by fear and superstition, and seems almost
entirely lacking in anything like a sense of sin or
feelings of gratitude towards a higher spiritual Power.
But still, it is also true that, setting aside a few local
customs in the worship of the village deities, there is
nothing in the system itself which is quite so morally
degrading and repulsive as the Lihgam worship of the
Sivaites, or the marriage of girls to the god and their
consequent dedication to a life of prostitution among
the Vaishnavites. If the worship of Siva and Vishnu
has risen to greater heights, it has also sunk to lower
moral depths than the less intellectual and less aesthetic
worship of the grama-devatas.

What the origin of the village deities and their
worship may have been, it is difficult to say. The
system, as it now exists, combines many different ideas
and customs, and has probably resulted from the fusion
of various forms of religion. In the Tamil country
there are many features in the worship of the village
deities, which, obviously, have been adopted from
Brahmanism, e.g. the elaborate washing of the images,
and the growing aversion to animal sacrifices. So in
Mysore, there are traces of sun-worship in the cult of
Bisal-Mari ; and there are many features in the system
everywhere, which seem to be borrowed from the
worship, or rather propitiation, of the spirits of the
departed. But the system as a whole is redolent of the
soil, and evidently belongs to a pastoral and agricultural
community. The village is the centre round which the
system revolves, and the protection of the villagers the
object for which it exists. At the same time, it is quite
possible that the ultimate origin of many of the rites
and ceremonies may be traced further back to a nomadic
stage of society. Most of them have now entirely lost

PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE WORSHIP 143

their meaning, and, when the people are asked what a
particular ceremony means or what its object is, their
usual reply is simply " It is mamul," i.e. custom; and
there are many details of the sacrifices, which seem
strangely inconsistent with the general idea and theory
of the worship which now prevails. The one object of
all the worship and sacrifices now is to propitiate various
spirits, good and evil. And this is done by means
of gifts, which, it is supposed, the spirits like, or by
ceremonies, which will please them. Some of the
spirits are supposed to delight in bloodshed, so animals
are killed in their presence, and sometimes even the
blood is given them to drink ; or blood and rice are
sprinkled over the fields and streets, or thrown up in
the air for them to eat. To the less refined goddesses
or to the coarser male attendants, like Madurai-Viran,
arrack, toddy, and cheroots are freely offered, because
it is assumed that these gifts will rejoice their hearts
and propitiate them. But a great deal of the ritual and
many of the most striking ceremonies are quite incon
sistent with this gift-theory of sacrifice and the idea of
propitiation, which is now assumed to be the one motive
and purpose of the festivals. For instance, one of the
main features of the animal sacrifices is the varied
applications of the blood of the victims. Sometimes
the blood is applied to the bodies of the worshippers
themselves, to their foreheads and breasts ; sometimes
it is sprinkled on the lintel and door-posts of the shrine,
sometimes on the houses or cattle, sometimes on the
boundary-stones, sometimes it is mixed with rice and
scattered over the streets, or sprinkled all round the
boundaries of the village lands. But what possible
meaning could these various uses of the- blood have
according to the gift-theory of sacrifice ? On this theory
it would be intelligible why it should be presented, as is
sometimes done, at the shrine of the deity, or even
drunk, as at Trichinopoly, by the pujari, who repre
sents the goddess ; but of these other uses of the blood
the gift-theory seems to furnish no adequate explana
tion. Or again, what possible meaning could the gift-

144 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

theory suggest for the widespread custom of putting the
entrails round the neck of the pujan and the liver in his
mouth ? It is not probable that such a custom as this
originated without some reason or idea at the back of
it ; but on the gift-theory it seems absolutely meaning
less.

Or again, another leading feature of the worship is
the sacrificial feast in various forms. Sometimes the
feast takes place on the spot, in the compound of the
shrine ; more often the carcass is taken home by the
offerer for a feast in his own house. Sometimes it is a
formal and ceremonious act, as in certain villages of the
Telugu country, where five little Mala boys, called
Siddhalu, or innocents, are fed with the flesh of the
victim under cover of a large cloth, to keep off evil
spirits or the evil eye. Here, again, the gift-theory
seems quite inconsistent with the whole idea of the
sacrificial feast. The explanation often given, that the
goddess consumes the essence or spirit (Saram or Avi)
of the gifts, while the worshippers take the material
substance, is perhaps in accordance with the animistic
idea found in other countries that, even for men, the
important thing in their food is the soul-stuff it contains
rather than the outward, material part of it. But in
any case this would still leave unexplained the fact that
the eating of the flesh by the worshippers is in many
cases regarded as a religious act and as an important
part of the sacrifice, like the feast on the victims offered
in the peace offerings under the Jewish law. On the
other hand, the sacrificial feast finds a natural and ready
explanation, if we assume that the system originated in
the desire for communion with the spirit world and not
in the idea of propitiation.

Herr Warneck when describing the Animism of the
Battaks of Sumatra in his book, The Living Forces of the
Gospel, points out that most of the ceremonies connected
with heathen sacrifices and a large number of heathen
superstitions generally have their origin in the funda
mental idea underlying all animistic religions, that
not only living creatures and organisms but even

PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE WORSHIP 145

lifeless things share in a universal soul or a soul-stuff
that pervades everything in the world. " The vital
question for the Animist, " he says, "is how to place
his own soul in relation to the souls surrounding him,
and to their powers, which are partly injurious and
and partly useful, with as little danger and as much
advantage to himself as possible. What must I do to
protect and enrich my soul? That is the cardinal
question of the animistic catechism." The main object
of eating the flesh of an animal, therefore, is to absorb
this soul-stuff and appropriate the special virtue which
belongs to the animal. " The flesh of an animal that is
eaten produces an effect on man corresponding to the
animal in question. The flesh of the stag gives nimble-
ness. Gamecocks are made to devour centipedes
in order to assimilate their fierceness. Javanese
thieves carry with them crow-bones to be as clever at
stealing as crows." And Herr Warneck is probably
right in thinking that this is the explanation of Can
nibalism. It is not an act of ferocity or revenge, still
less of epicureanism, since the Battaks dislike human
flesh so much that it nearly makes them sick ; but "it is
supposed that in eating a man's flesh the eater appro
priates the other's soul." And in accordance with this
idea those parts of the body in which the soul-power is
supposed to be concentrated, the liver, the palms of the
hands, the sinews and the flesh of the head are specially
prized. To the same idea we may trace the horrid
custom of drinking the blood of victims offered in sacri
fice, which is so common in South India, and the various
uses of the blood described in Chapter III. "The soul-
stuff," says Herr Warneck, " has special vigour in the
blood," and it is repeatedly stated in the Jewish law
with reference to the sacrificial victims that " the blood
is the life."

It can readily be seen how easily in primitive times
these animistic ideas gave rise to that particular form
of Animism, which is generally known as Totemism.
In the nomadic stage society consists of tribes or clans,
the members of which are akin to one another, or, at

10

146 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

any rate, are assumed to be united by ties of blood rela
tionship. All the members of the clan, then, are blood
relations, and are bound together, as members of one
family, for mutual help and protection. The normal
attitude of every clan towards other clans is one of
suspicion, hostility and war, and this constant pressure
of hostile clans compels each individual clan, not only
to maintain its unity and brotherhood, but, if possible, to
enlarge its limits and add to its numbers. It becomes
possible to do this by a convenient extension of the
idea of blood relationship. If a man is not one of the
clan by birth, he can be made one by, in some way,
being made a partaker of its blood. In his Introduction
to Ui£ History of Religion, Mr. Jevons quotes several
instances of this from different parts of the world, in
both ancient and modern times. The following
examples from Africa will suffice to illustrate the
custom : —

" The exchange of blood is of ten practised amongst the blacks
of Africa, as a token of alliance and friendship. The Mambettu
people, after having inflicted small wounds upon each others'
arms, reciprocally suck the blood, which flows from the incision.
In the Unyora country the parties dip two coffee berries into the
blood, and eat them. Amongst the Sandeh the proceedings are
not so repulsive ; the operator, armed with two short knives, inocu
lates the blood of one person into the wound of another. The
exact manner in which this last operation is performed is des
cribed by Mr. Ward, who himself submitted to it." After not
ing that blood brotherhood is a form of cementing friendship and
a guarantee of good faith, popular with all the Upper Congo
tribes, he proceeds : "An incision was made in both our right
arms, in the outer muscular swelling just below the elbow, and
as the blood flowed in a tiny stream, the charm-doctor sprinkled
powdered chalk and potash on the wounds, delivering the while,
in rapid tones, an appeal to us to maintain unbroken the sanctity
of the contract, and then our arms being rubbed together, so that
the flowing blood intermingled, we were declared to be brothers
of one blood, whose interest henceforth should be united as our
blood now was."

These examples will suffice to illustrate the wide
spread idea that the actual drinking or application of
the blood of a clan will create a blood-relationship and
alliance among men, who are not actually members of

PROBABLE ORIGIN OP THE WORSHIP 147

the same family. But the human clan in its struggle
for existence found itself surrounded, not only by other
human clans, but also by various tribes of animals,
which it looked upon as analogous to the clans of men ;
and it desired to strengthen its position by an alliance
with one or another of these animal clans, which, for
some reason, impressed itself upon its imagination as
animated by some supernatural power. The animal
clan then became what is now called the totem of the
human clan ; and the spirit that was supposed to
animate the totem clan became, in a certain sense, an
object of worship. One great purpose of the sacrifice,
then, was to cement and strengthen the alliance
between the human clan and the animal clan ; and
the way in which this was done was through some
application of the blood of the totem, or by, in some
way, coming into contact with that which was specially
connected with its life, or by partaking of its flesh. The
object, then, of killing a member of the totem tribe
becomes clear. Under ordinary circumstances it would
be absolutely forbidden, and regarded as the murder of
a kinsman ; but on special occasions it was solemnly
done in order to shed the blood and partake of the flesh,
and so strengthen the alliance. The blood is regarded
as the life, and when the blood of a member of the
totem tribe of animals was shed, the life of the totem
was brought to the spot where it was needed, and the
blood could be applied to the worshippers as a bond of
union, and then the union could be still further cemented
by the feast upon the flesh, by which the spirit of the
totem was absorbed and assimilated by its human
kinsmen. The object of the animal sacrifice, therefore,
was not in any sense to offer a gift, but to obtain com
munion with the totem-spirit.

Now, if we apply this theory of sacrifice to the
sacrifices offered to the village deities in South India,
we see that the main ceremonies connected with them
at once become intelligible ; the various modes of
sprinkling and applying the blood, and the different
forms of the sacrificial feast were all originally intended

148 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

to promote communion with the spirit that was wor
shipped. In the same way, even such a ceremony as
the wearing of the entrails round the neck, and putting
the liver in the mouth, acquires an intelligible meaning
and purpose. The liver and entrails are naturally
connected with the life of the animal, and the motive of
this repulsive ceremony would seem to be an intense
desire to obtain as close communion as possible with
the object of worship by wearing those parts of its
body that are specially connected with its life. So,
too, this theory explains why the animal sacrificed is
so often treated as an object of worship. In the case
of the buffalo sacrifices in the Telugu country, as we
have seen, the buffalo is paraded through the village,
decked with garlands and smeared with turmeric and
kunkuma, and then, as it passes by the houses, people
come out and pour water on its feet, and worship it.
But why should this be done if the animal sacrificed is
regarded as only a gift to the goddess ? When, however,
we realize that the animal sacrificed was not originally
regarded as a gift, but as a member of the totem tribe
and the representative of the spirit to be worshipped,
the whole ceremony becomes full of meaning.

Then, again, this theory of the origin of sacrifice
supplies a very plausible and intelligible explanation
of the origin of the use of stones and images to
represent the village deities in India. At first sight it
seems a complete mystery why a common ordinary
stone should be regarded as representing a god or
goddess. Most of the stones used for this purpose in
South Indian villages have absolutely nothing that is
peculiar or distinctive about them. Often they are
simply stone pillars of varying heights, and a large
number are only small, conical stones, not more than
six or seven inches high. Some, again, are flat slabs
with figures carved on them in bas-relief and others are
regular images. The images and carved bas-reliefs we
can understand ; but how could these ordinary stones
and stone-pillars have ever come to be regarded as the
representatives of spiritual beings ? The theory of

PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE WORSHIP 149

sacrifice connected with totemism supplies, at any rate, a
possible and intelligible explanation. The totem
animal was killed in order to shed the blood, and so
secure the presence of the totem deity at a particular
spot, which then became sacred or Taboo. To violate
it would be a grievous offence. Accordingly the spot
was marked by a simple heap of stones, or by an
upright stone pillar, which would perhaps be sprinkled
with the blood. Then, as totemism gradually died out
and gave place to higher religious ideas and anthropo
morphic conceptions of deity, the old totemistic concep
tion of sacrifice became obscured, and the animal that
was killed was regarded no longer as the representa
tive of the object of worship, but as a gift to the deity.
At the same time the sanctity of the spot became asso
ciated with the stones, originally set up to mark the
place of sacrifice, and so in time the stone pillar itself
became sacred, and came to be treated as the symbol of
the deity to whom the sacrifice was offered, while the
heap of stones developed into the sacred altar. We can
probably trace one stage of this process of evolution in
the ideas now connected with the boundary-stone, ellai-
kal. No doubt it was once simply a stone placed to mark
the spot, on the boundary of the village lands, where the
sacrifice was offered. Then the stone became sacred,
and the idea grew up that it was inhabited by the spirit
who was worshipped. There, however, the process of
evolution stopped, and the stone is not now regarded,
like the other stones, as representing the deity, but
simply as her abode.

Probably the other stones were once regarded in
exactly the same light, and then advanced a step further
and became representatives of the deities worshipped.
The next step, to the carved human figures, whether
bas-reliefs or complete images, would be easy and
natural, when once the deity had been conceived no
longer as the spirit of a whole species of animals, but
as akin to human beings.

When this change in religious ideas took place must,
of course, be a matter of conjecture, but it probably

150 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

coincided with the change from the nomadic to the
settled pastoral and agricultural life, when the wander
ing clan developed into the village community, and
the superiority of man to the lower animals had been
definitely established.

Similarly, it is possible that the connexion between
the growth of agriculture and the origin of village
communities and so also of village deities, may account
for the fact that the village deities of South India are
almost always females.

All over the world the earth spirit is regarded as
female and the presiding deities of agriculture are
mainly goddesses, because the idea of fertility and
reproduction is connected with women. When, there
fore, a nomadic pastoral clan settled down to an
agricultural life in villages, they would naturally wor
ship the earth-spirits of the village lands as goddesses
rather than as gods.

The fact, too, that agriculture among primitive races
was the business of women rather than of men, as it is
among savage races at the present day, probably led to
the village goddesses being at first worshipped by the
women rather than by the men. One trace of this is
still found in the custom of the Mala pujari, who is a
man, dressing up as a woman when he sits in the cart
with the animals impaled alive all around him, and is
dragged in procession through the village,1 as well as
in the prominent part taken by women in some places
in the waving of the arati.2

These theories as to the origin of the village
deities, of idolatry and of animal sacrifice in South
India, can, of course, be regarded only as hypotheses.
But, when we consider that the totemistic theory is
able to furnish a plausible explanation of the crude
form of idolatry which exists in many villages, and of
many features in the sacrificial rites, which seem quite
inconsistent with the existing ideas of sacrifice, we see
that there is sufficient evidence to justify its adoption

1 See above, p. 58. * See above, p. 39.

PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE WORSHIP 151

as a working hypothesis. And there can be no doubt
that the ceremonial observed in these sacrifices gives
very substantial support to the theory, that the
original idea of sacrifice was not that of a gift to the deity
but communion with a supernatural power. And, if
that is true, then we may see, even in these primitive
rites, a foreshadowing of far higher forms of religions
belief and practice. The mysterious efficacy attributed
to the sprinking of the blood might almost be regarded
as an unconscious prophecy of the Christian doctrine of
the Atonement, while the whole ritual of the sacrifices,
even in its crudest and most revolting forms, bears
witness to that instinctive craving after communion
with God, which finds its highest expression and satis
faction in the sacramental system of the Christian
Church.

CHAPTER IX

SOCIAL, MORAL, AND RELIGIOUS
INFLUENCE OF THE SYSTEM

THE results of this system of religion might at first
seem to be wholly degrading intellectually, morally,
and spiritually. It appears on the surface to be a religion
of fear and superstition, finding its outward expression
in mean, ugly symbols, and in forms of worship that
are to a very large extent disgusting and even immoral.
The account of a village festival in the Telugu country
reads like mere midsummer madness ; many of the rites
in which animals are impaled or buried alive are revolt
ing in their cruelty ; and the animal sacrifices with their
crude butchery and coarse bloodshed bear witness to a
low and unworthy conception of deity. Whatever may
have been the origin of these animal sacrifices in
prehistoric times, they are now regarded by the
worshippers simply as a means of appeasing the deity's
wrath by satisfying her lust for blood. In the ancient
Jewish sacrifices there may have been the same amount
of bloodshed and butchery, when on such an occasion as
the dedication of the Temple at Jerusalem "King
Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand
oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep," but the
Jewish sacrifices symbolized great moral and spiritual
truths ; the victim represented the worshipper, the
killing of the animal and the offering of the blood
expressed the consecration of the worshipper's own life
to God ; in the sin offering and the peace offering the
presentation of the blood and the feast on the flesh
were symbolical of penitence for sin and communion
with God. But in the sacrifices to the village deities

INFLUENCE OF THE SYSTEM 153

in India at the present day there are no traces of
those higher ideas in the minds of the worshippers.
There is no penitence for sin, no thought of the
consecration of human life to a just and holy God,
but simply the desire to appease the ill-temper of
a vengeful spirit by an offering of blood. And even
in unbloody offerings of fruit, camphor, and incense
to the more refined and respectable of the goddesses,
who are supposed to be shocked by the sight of blood,
the idea of sacrifice does not rise above the conception
of a propitiatory gift. It is the kind of offering
that is made to the local policeman or a tyrannical
government official to secure his favour. And
in almost all the festivals held in honour of the
village deities there is a wild orgiastic excitement,
and often a sad amount of drunkenness and immorality
that is most degrading. So, too, there is nothing
morally elevating in the conception formed of the
characters of the deities themselves. They have not
even the grandeur of such a deity as Siva. Siva may be
terrible and cruel, but at any rate there is something
grand and majestic about him : he represents a world-
force ; he is an interpretation of the universe and the
embodiment of a philosophy. But the village deity is
nothing more than a petty local spirit, tyrannizing over
or protecting a small hamlet, occasionally venting her
spite or her ill-temper on a handful of poor villagers.
She inspires fear because of her power to do grievous
harm by inflicting diseases and injuries on man and
beast when she is offended, but she has no relation to
the universe or even to the world : she is the product of
fear untouched by philosophic reflection ; so she does
not draw out any feelings of wonder and admiration,
still less of love and gratitude, nor does she lead her
worshippers on to any higher ideals of morality.

Taking the system, therefore, as a whole, as it exists
at the present day, we can only condemn it from a
moral and religious point of view7 as a debasing super
stition, and the only attitude which the Christian Church
can possibly take towards it as a working system is one

154 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

of uncompromising hostility, the same attitude that the
Jewish prophets of old took to the local Semitic cults
in Palestine with all their idolatrous and immoral
associations. In the writings of Hindu philosophers
and poets there are many noble and inspiring thoughts,
but there is nothing in the vast jungle of beliefs and
practices that have grown up during the course of ages
around the worship of the village deities that the Chris
tian Church could wish to preserve. The first step to
wards any religious progress in the villages of South
India is to cut down this jungle of beliefs and practices,
rites and ceremonies, and clear the ground for the
teaching and worship of the Christian Church. When
the Outcastes of a village in the Telugu country become
Christians, they very often level the shrine of their local
deity to the ground and build a Christian prayer-house
on the site. That expresses the general attitude of
Christianity to the whole system.

At the same time we must not allow the corrup
tions of the system at the present day, with all its
debasing rites and its low and petty views of the
deity, to blind us to its social and religious value in
past ages, or to the deeper spiritual feelings and
instincts which it has feebly striven to express.
In the first place, the worship of the village deities
has maintained a silent protest on behalf of religious
and social equality. Feeble and ineffective as the
protest may be, still it is a protest that is not without
its value. In the worship of the village deities there
is no priestly caste. The Brahman is nowhere ; the
pujaris may belong to any caste ; the leading part in
the buffalo sacrifices is nearly always taken by the
Outcastes ; the folklore of the village deities and the
songs chanted at the sacrifices give hints of a time
when the Outcastes aspired to equality with the Brah-
mans ; and the large number of people from the
different Sudra castes who take part in the sacrifices
form a striking witness to what we should call in the
Christian Church the priesthood of the laity. It is a
feeble flickering light shining in a dark place, like the

INFLUENCE OF THE SYSTEM 155

witness borne to the equality and brotherhood of man
at the temple of Jagannath in Orissa, where all castes,
including the Brahmans, eat together. Still the wit
ness has been maintained through the long centuries of
caste tyranny, and perhaps it has had more influence
than we imagine in keeping alive in the hearts of the
depressed classes some slight feeling of self-respect
and a sense of their own worth in the community. It
is something to be proud of that when the terrible cala
mity of cholera or small- pox threatens the life of the
village, the calamity cannot be averted without their
help. If they cannot feel that they are respected, the
next best thing is to feel that in times of trouble they
are needed.

Then, in the second place, deep down in the system,
buried beneath a mass of traditional rites that have lost
their meaning, there is still the instinctive craving
of the human heart for communion with God. This
instinctive feeling after God has indeed been degraded
by unworthy and petty ideas of the spiritual world ;
it has been distorted by fear and superstition ; it has
found expression in weird and horrid forms ; but
still, in spite of all corruptions and distortions, we
can discern in it, not merely a belief in a spirit
world, but a desire to come into personal communion
with spiritual beings. In the previous chapter it has
been shown that - the original idea underlying the
system of animal sacrifice was that of communion
rather than that of propitiation ; and, though at the
present day propitiation by acceptable gifts is undoubt
edly the dominant idea in these sacrifices and offerings,
still the idea of communion is not wholly lost. The
pujari is often regarded as possessed and inspired by
the deity, and the sprinkling of the blood of the victim
on the houses, the fields and the persons of the wor
shippers is regarded as a means of securing the presence
and protection of the deity. While, therefore, the
methods of communion are all wrong, and the concep
tion of the deity with whom communion is sought is
hopelessly inadequate and perverted, still, in the

156 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

simple desire for communion with a deity of some sort,
there is a germ and root of true religious feeling
which craves for expression. It is pathetic to notice
how real is the desire among many of the more religious
men and women in the villages, even among the de
pressed classes, to see God. I have often met with and
heard of men who have spent what are for them large
sums of money, and undergone much hardship, to satisfy
this desire. We must not undervalue this rudimentary
religious feeling ; and if, in the worship of the village
deities, it has for many centuries been feeding on
carrion, perhaps it is better for it to feed on carrion
than to die of starvation.

Then, again, the belief in the village deities has
undoubtedly fostered an attitude of mind towards the
spiritual world which is to a certain degree a preparation
for the Gospel. It has made men feel a sense of
dependence on spiritual beings. The mental attitude of
the ordinary villager is the very antithesis of materialism
or agnoticism. He has a very vivid belief that the world
in which he lives is surrounded by unseen spiritual beings,
and in all times of trouble he feels intensely his depen
dence on his village deity for help and protection. And
even where the village deity is conceived of as an ill-
tempered, revengeful being, the fear which she inspires
is not a bad preparation for a belief in a God of love.
The experience of most evangelists among the Out-
castes of South India would be, I think, that their fear
of evil spirits is one reason why the doctrine of an
omnipotent God of infinite love appeals to them with
so much force It makes them realize their need of
help. It does for them what the fear of powerful and
malicious enemies did for the Jewish people of old.
The Jewish Psalms show how closely the need of
protection from powerful enemies was bound up with
the deepest religious feelings of the chosen people.
The need of protection against evil spirits is playing a
similar part in the religious development of the
villagers of South India.

The Christian Church thus brings to the villagers,

INFLUENCE OF THE SYSTEM 157

and especially to the Outcastes, three great truths which
their belief in the village deities specially prepares them
to accept :

(a) First, the truth of the existence of an omnipo
tent God of infinite love, the creator and the ruler
of the universe, and the Father of all mankind, a truth
which stands out in vivid and startling contrast to their
belief in a multitude of evil or ill-tempered spirits
always ready to do them grievous harm, with no
superior power to control them.

(b) Second, the truth of the universal redemption
from sin and the great gift of direct, personal access to
an almighty, all-loving God through Jesus Christ.
This truth stands in equally striking contrast to the
poor and miserable communion with a petty local deity
offered through the blood of their animal sacrifices.
To compare great things with small, it is as though a
poor villager suffering from the persecution of a petty
local official were suddenly told that he had free right
of access to the kind and powerful collector of the
district. The good news of free access to God is a
real Gospel of freedom.

(c) And thirdly, there is the great truth of the
equality of all men in God's sight and the universal
brotherhood of man. It is a truth very dimly fore
shadowed in the rites of their primitive cult ; but in the
Christian Church it stands out as the very essence of
the Gospel message. And it is a truth that makes a
powerful appeal to the hearts of the downtrodden and
depressed.

Thus, while the cult of the village deities provides
little foundation of belief or practice on which the
Christian Church can build ; on the other hand it has
kept alive a sense of deep spiritual needs, which
Christianity alone can satisfy. It certainly brings
religion down into the every-day life of the people.
The ordinary villager of South India does nothing
without offering prayer to the village deity, while the
shrines and symbols that are scattered all over the
countryside keep constantly before his mind the

158 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

existence of a spiritual world. However poor and
degraded his ideas of deity may be, at any rate they are
to him a profound reality, and this sense of the reality
and importance of the spiritual world is not a bad
foundation for the Christian Church to build upon.

APPENDIX I

ON THF CEREMONY OF THE OPENING OF THE MOUTH
IN THE FUNERAL RITES OF ANCIENT EGYPT

There is an interesting parallel to the practice of
cutting off the right foreleg and putting it in the mouth
of the buffalo (described on page 51) in the ancient
funeral ceremonies connected with the cult of Osiris in
Egypt. The legend ran that, after Osiris had been
murdered by his brother Set, his son Horus sought out
his body, in order to raise it to life ; and, when he found
it, he untied the bandages so that Osiris might move his
limbs and rise up. Under the direction of Thoth,
Horus recited a series of formulas, as he presented
offerings to Osiris ; and he and his sons and Anubis
performed the ceremonies which opened the mouth and
nostrils, and the eyes and ears of Osiris. This opening
of the mouth was one of the regular funeral rites in
ancient Egypt.

There is a book found in tombs called the Book of
the Opening of the Mouth ; and in a British Museum
bulletin, entitled The Book of the Dead, written by
Mr. E. A. Wallis Budge, it is said that, on the upper
margins of the insides of coffins, there are frequently
given two or more rows of coloured drawings of the
offerings which under the fifth dynasty were presented
to the deceased or his statue during the celebration of
the service of "Opening the Mouth." In one of the
illustrations the ceremony of Opening the Mouth is
shown as being performed on the mummy of a royal
scribe. In the picture there is a calf walking in front
of its mother with its left foreleg cut off, and in front
of the calf are two slaves, one with the heart of the

160 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

deceased in his hand, and the other holding the left
foreleg of the calf, which is apparently being placed
upon a table. It is not clear what part the foreleg
plays in the ceremony of the "Opening of the Mouth,"
but there is an obvious resemblance between this
ancient ceremony in Egypt and the widespread custom
in South India mentioned above. The Egyptian cere
mony suggests that one object of putting the foreleg in
the mouth in the case of sacrifices in India is to keep it
open and enable the spirit of the animal to go in and
out.

We give in Plate XVIII a photograph of a buffalo
sacrifice carried out by the servants of Dr. Hunt of
Secunderabad. The scene is the garage in which his
motor bicycle stands. Round it the servants have
grouped his sword, the gardener's shears, a baby's
chair, a tea-kettle, etc., and to these the sacrifice was
made. In the right foreground lies the body of the
buffalo, to the left its head with the right foreleg in
its mouth, while between the head and the bicycle may
be seen a bottle of liquor and various other offerings.

APPENDIX II
ON THE USE OF IRON TO DRIVE AWAY EVIL SPIRITS

A curious custom connected with the worship of
Mariamma was brought to my notice by Dr. Hunt of
Secunderabad. An Indian friend of his came across it
in a village of the Bellary district in the Telugu country.
The villagers hold a festival in honour of the goddess
Mariamma every year and offer the usual sacrifices.
In 1917 there was a very severe epidemic of influenza
in the district ; so a special festival was held to appease
the wrath of the goddess. A wooden bust of her was
made with arms akimbo and sacrifices were duly offered
to it. Thousands of people came from neighbouring
villages for the occasion, to do puja and make their
offerings. On the following night the image was placed
on a small wooden cart about three feet high, and taken
in procession to a place outside the village. The head
of each family then came and drove an iron nail into
the image, till it was dotted all over with nails. A goat
was then sacrificed, and the blood sprinkled over the
goddess ; after which the image and the cart were
covered over with a red cloth and left in the field. A
rough drawing of the nail-filled image is reproduced in
Plate XVIII. The explanation of this ceremony given
by the villagers themselves was that the nails were
driven in to the goddess to attract her attention and
induce her to be kind to each family and protect them
against the disease. It seems an odd way of doing it ;
and probably the real meaning of the ceremony in
prehistoric times was somewhat different. It is a
very old and wide-spread idea that malignant spirits
are afraid of iron ; and it is possible that the hammering

11

162 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

of the nails into the goddess was originally intended to
put the fear of iron into her and drive out of her the
evil temper. The villagers do not now connect the
practice with black magic (bhanamati); but the original
idea may have been in some way connected with it.
But whatever the origin, it throws an interesting
light on the driving of nails into the famous Hindenburg
statue in Berlin during the war. Evidently this is a
survival of an old pagan custom dating back to a remote
antiquity.

It is a common belief among all castes in Malabar1
that lonely places, such as cremation grounds, the sides
of tanks or groves of tamarind trees, are haunted by
" pisachas " or evil spirits. At about the middle of the
night these evil spirits are supposed to roam about
their haunts with the intention of possessing those who
chance to pass their way. People who say that they
have seen the demon give us to understand that it has
the form of a woman, and less often of a man, while
others say that its form is too fearful to describe,
attesting that, if they could believe their eyes, they saw a
hideous and most appalling figure towering right up to
the skies. Men are much afraid to pass through such
places between nine p.m. and three a.m., but feel
themselves safe when they have sharp iron weapons
with them. It is supposed that the devil is afraid of
iron and goes away in a fright. A man versed in
magic, when he has to walk through such places, draws
a cabalistic figure on the earth, and inscribes on it
some mystical letters. At the centre of the figure he
plunges the pointed end of an iron knife or peg.
Having done this, he feels quite secure from the baneful
influence of evil spirits.

Sometimes a house is believed to be haunted by
some of these aerial beings. When calamities come
thick upon the inmates of a house, it is a certain sign
that it is possessed by evil spirits. In such a case the

1 These notes about Malabar were kindly given me by one
of the assistants of the Government Museum, Madras.

APPENDIX II 163

exerciser is sent for. He comes and studies the situa
tion of the house and the position of the doors and
windows and so on. Having got a thorough knowledge
of it, he is able to say which way the devil comes and
goes. A suitable corner is selected, according to the
rules of sorcery, and an iron nail is driven into the
earth at that corner. The devil is bound down by such
an act, and the householder feels that he has nothing
more to fear from demoniacal influences.

To cast out the devil that has possessed a man or a
woman, the following method is very commonly resort
ed to. A wooden image of the person under the power
of the evil spirit is made, and a square hole made in it
just above the navel. The wood selected for this
purpose is, as a rule, that of the palamaram, i.e. alstozia
scholaris. This is done according to the rules of magic.
Then, by the recitation of certain mysterious spells, the
essence of the person afflicted with the malady is trans
ferred to the wooden image. The idea of incising a
hole in the image seems to me to be to create an opening
or entrance in the image through,which the essence of
the person can be transferred to it. There might also be
another idea, that such an image should not be perfect
in every part. The image is then taken to a tree that
has plenty of milky juice in it and nailed on to it. The
tree selected for such purposes is palamaram, i.e.
alstozia sc/wlaris, arayalmaram, i.e. iicus religiosa, or
Pezhumaram, i.e. careya arborea. The spirit no longer
possesses the person but possesses the tree.

In the Madras Museum there are two large wooden
images, over five feet high, studded all over with
wooden nails. The first, a life-size rude female
human figure, with feet turned backwards, carved out
of the wood of alstoria sc/wlaris, was washed ashore at
Calicut in 1903. It probably came from the Laccadive
islands, some of whose residents are famous necro
mancers. The figure probably represented a woman
possessed by an evil spirit. By means of magic rites
and the driving in of the nails, the people believed they
had nailed up the spirit in the image, and then threw it

164 THE VILLAGE GODS OF SOUTH INDIA

into the sea. The other figure was found at Tellicherry.
Arabic characters, doubtless regarded as of great magic
potency, are carved all over the figures.

The use of iron to scare away evil spirits is very
common among the Chamars in North India.1

Briggs, The Chamars, 142.

GLOSSARY OF INDIAN TERMS

As only brief definitions are possible here, a reference is given
in each case to the page on which the term is explained. Names
of deities. are not included. They may be found in the indices.

abishegam — anointing, wash
ing, 92.

adi — original, 133.

amma or amman — a feminine
termination, 23.

draft — a lamp of rice flour, 39.

arrack — a native intoxicant, 49.

Asadis — priests of the Malas,
44.

ashta sakti — the eight powers
of the universe, 30.

a vatara— incarnation, 24.

bali — offering, 82.

bali-harana — presentation of
the offering, 63.

basava — bull or ox, 125.

basavl — a fallen woman conse
crated to a deity, 45.

betel — a pepper plant, 39.

bhadrakshi — a kind of bead, 129.

boddu-rayee — navel-stone. 60.

Brahman — the highest Hindu
caste, 19.

Chakras — a section of the Out-
castes, 81.

Chandala - an Outcaste, 84.

cholam—a. coarse grain, 50.

damaru — a. Sivaite drum, 129
n. I.

devara kona — consecrated buf
falo, 78.

devara-potu — consecrated to
the goddess, 62.

dola-fatra — swing-festival, 59
n. 1.

dubakaya — a fruit, 67.

ellai-kal— boundary-stone, 33.

Ganga-bhavanl — a f o r t i fi e d

place, 129.
ganja — Indian hemp used as an

intoxicant, 90.
gauda-kona — husband -buffalo,

73.

gingelly — a plant, 90.
golla — milkman, 75.
gopuram — the towered gateway

of a South Indian temple, 134.
gram — lentils, 64.
grama-devata — village-god, 16.
Hara— destroyer, 137.
inam — rent-free land, 63.
Kaniyas — religious mendicants

found in Coorg, 87.
kankanam — a bracelet, 105.
kapu — a yellow wristlet, 100.
karagam — pot, 37.
karnam — a village accountant,

44.
kavalgar — village watchman,

106.
kitchadi — a dish of flour and

buttermilk, 81.

krita yuga — the golden age, 132.
krittam — a conical head-dress,

26.
Kshatriya — the second Hindu

caste, 19.

ktinkuma — a red paste, 50.
kunna-kannadi — eye-mirror, 29.
Kuttadis — dancers, 27.
linga — S*iva's phallic symbol,

72 n. 1.
Lingayats — a sect who wear the

linga, 72.

166

GLOSSARY OF INDIAN TERMS

Madigas — the lowest section of
the Outcastes in the Telugu
country, 28.

Maids — a large group of Out-
castes in the Telugu country,
44.

mantram — a sacred text, 92.

maranada bali — death-atone
ment, 88.

margosa — the neem tree, 37.

mleccha — a foreigner, 19.

muhurtam — moment, 132.

mund — a group of huts, 61.

munsiff — a village magistrate,
57.

namaskaram — obeisance, 66.

nautch-girls — dancing girls at
tached to temples, 21.

Pambala — a hereditary Mala
priest, 58.

Panchama - an Outcaste, 19.

pandal — booth, 37.

Panikas — religious mendicants,
86,87.

Pariahs — the chief group of
Outcastes in the Tamil coun
try, 14.

pedda — great, 70.

pial— platform, 81.

prasadam — a grace-gift, 64.

puja — worship, 18.

pujarl — one who conducts wor
ship, a ministrant, 18.

puthraydgam — a sacrifice to

obtain a child, 31.
rakshatha — demon, 122.
j reddy — a village magistrate, 71.
| rudrdksha — a kind of berry,

129.

| ryot — a small farmer, 52.
! sakti — power, 29.
j sdstras — the Hindu sacred

books, 84.

shashthahgam — prostration, 74.
i siddhalu — innocents, 52.
i Sudra — the fourth Hindu caste,

19.

sulam — spear, 40.
tahsildar — the magistrate of a

sub-division of a district, 57.
j tali— a. marriage disk, 27, 132.
! talidri — a village servant, 72.
| tapas — austerities, 84.
i tom-tom — a native drum, 38.
I toti — watchman, 78.
! Trimurti — the Hindu triad, 24.
J Mf/7/a— trident, 40 n. 2.
| turmeric — a dye, 48.
j vdhana — vehicle, 90.
i Vaisya — the third Hindu caste,

19.

i veta — sacrifice, 70.
j vetty — scavenger, 56.
j vlran — hero, 33.
' yuga — an age, 132.
i zamindar— land-owner, 57.

INDEX OF THE GODS

A. Female

Addankamma, 23.
Akasakannigais, 26.
Ammavari, 64.
Ammavaru, 112.
Angalamma, 30, 31, 32, 91, 92,

93, 94, 105, 109.
Ankalamma, 24, 58.
Ankamrna or Ankalathavatha,

24, 31, 68, 127.
Annamma, 29, 79.
Arikamma, 24.
Ashta Sakti, 25, 26.
Balamma, 23.
Bhadra-Kall, 86.
Bisal-Mari, or Bisal-Mari-

amma, 29, 80, 81, 83.
Challalamma, 23.
Chamalamma, 24.
Chammandamma, 80.
ChandeSvaramma, 29, 79.
Chinnamma, 24.
Chinnintamma, 23.
Dalamma, 42.
Doddamma, 28, 77.
Draupati, 32, 90, 91.
Durga or Durgamma, 71, 74,

76, 86, 113 n.
Ellai-Pidari, 33.
Ellamma, 24, 40.
Ellaramma, 68.
Elliamman, 104.
Gangamma, 23, 24, 31, 67, 68.
Ghantalamma, 23.
Goonal Mari, 80.
Hathay, 123.
Hiridevathi, 80, 83, 84.
Huliamma. 29.
Isondamma, 24.
Kali or Kallamma, 17, 24, 32,

37, 39, 91, 92, 104, 108.

Kalumaiamman, 99, 100.
Kamachlamma, 31.
Kanniamma, 28, 32.
Kannigais, 26.
Kanniha Parame§varl, 123.
Kel Mari, 80, 83, 84.
Kokkalamma, 29, 79.
Koniatnma, 121.
Kulanthalamman, 102, 110.
Kurumbai or Kurumbaiamma,

37, 100, 101, 102.
Maddha Ramamma, 16.
Madura-Kali, or Madura-Kall-

amman, 106, 107, 108.
Mahadeva-Amma, 29.
Mahakall, 30, 104.
Mahalakshmi or Mahalakshml-

amma, 24, 66, 68.
MaheSvaramma, 28, 77, 78.
Malaiyayi, 98.
Mamillamma, 23.
Mane Manchi or Mane Man-

chamma, 82, 83.
Maramma, 24, 29, 42, 74, 79.
Maramma-Hethana, 42.
Mari or Mariamma, 19, 29, 30,

32,45, 80, 86, 88, 90, 91, 92,

93, 94, 106, 115, 116, 117.
Maridiamma, 30, 65.
Mayegvaramma, 29, 79.
Minachlamman, 112 ff.
Muni, 32.

Mutyalamma, 23, 24, 25, 68.
Nukalamma, 24, 30, 63, 65.
Paduvattamma, Plate XVI.
Pallalamma, 54.
Pandilamma, 23.
Peddamma, 24, 29, 48, 50.
Pidari, 32, 91, 92, 93, 94, 103,

104, 108.

168

INDEX OF THE GODS

Plague-Amma, 21.
Polamma, 24.
Poleramma, 24.
Poshamma, 70.
Pujamma, 28, 41, 78.
Pullathalamman, 104.
Ramamma, 21.
Ravelamma, 68.
Saptakannigais, 25, 26.
Savadamma, 123.
Savaramma, 28.
Seliamma, 32.
S*!talamma, 23.
Sukhajamma, 29, 79.
Sunkalamma, 24, 71, 74.

Thurgai, 118.
Thuropathlamraa, 31.
Udalamma, 29, 79.
Ugra-Mahakali 25.
Ujinihonkali, 104, 105.
Uramma, 29, 71, 73, 119.
Uttahnahaliamma, 80.
Vasukota, 24.
Vlra-Mahakall, 30.
Vishalakshmlamman, 105.
Wanamalamma, 22.
Yaparamma, 23.
Yeeranagere Mari, 80.
Yellamma, 116.

B. Male

Basavanna, 124.
Bathalama, 105.
Buddha Sahib, 16.
Ellai-Karuppn, 33, 101.
lyenar, 18, 30, 33, 35, 90, 91,

94, 105.

Karuppanna, 33, 114.
Karuppu, 102, 108.
Kuttandavar, 26, 27.
MadeSvara, 81.
Madurai-Vlran, 25, 33, 89, 92,

93, 94, 98, 101, 102, 105, 108,

113.

Mahalinga, 126.
Munadian, 33, 89, 92, 93.
MuneSvara, 28, 77, 78.
Padu-Karuppanna, 98.
Pandur-Karuppana, 98.
Periyanna-Svaml, 107.
Potu-Razu, 18, 24, 40.
Raja Vayan, 34.
Ursuthiyan, 98.

Boddu-rayee, 41.
Ellai-kal, 28; 101.

C. Stone*

Nattan-kal, 40.

The Cattle Stone, 39.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX

A. The Telugu Country: 18, 23-24, 36, 40, 43, Chap. IV.

Bezwada, IS, 16.
Bhimadole, 69.
Cocanada, 30, 63.
Cuddapah, 24, 60.
Dharmaja-Gudem, 68.
Ellore, 23, 58, 66.

Godavari, 65.
Gudivada,54, 59.
Kalasapad, 60.
Kurnool, 24, 58, 59.
Masulipatam, 23, 61, 63, 65.
Vijayanagar, 139.

B. The Tamil Country: 18, 19, 33, 35, 37, 38, 43, 45, 51, 61,
Chap. VI.

Coimbatore, 30, 31, 121, 122.
Cuddalore, 24, 89, 90.
Essene, 97.
Irungalur, 35, 100.
Kannanur, 106.
Kaveripampatinam, 113.
Madura, 112.
Mahakallkudi, 104.
Melakari, 98.
Negapatam, 19.
Pudukkottai, 103, 109.

Pullambadi, 102, 108, 110.

Sembia, 103.

Shiyali, 35, 91, 94.

Tanjore, 31, 32, 89, 91, 104, 108.

Trichinopoly, 31, 32, 33, 36, 89,

97, 99, 100, 102, 104, 108.
Tukanapaliam, 104.
Turayur, 106.
Vallum, 108.
Vandipaliam, 90.
Vellore, 94.

C. The Canarese Country: 23-24, 37, 40, 43, 49, Chap. V.

Bangalore, 20, 29, 76, 79.
Bellary, 44, 71, 74.
Kempapura Agrahara, 78.

Kogillu, 41.

Mysore City, 29, 39, 80.

Yelahanka, 79.

Coorg, 86.
Kateri, near
124.

D. The Nilgiris and Coorg: 61.

Ootacamund,

Naduhatty, near Ootacamund,

125.
Paranganad, 126.

GENERAL INDEX

A BISHEGAM, 92.

^ Abhisheka, 92.

Amma or Amman, 23.

Ammavari-Prasadarn, 64.

Ancestor-worship, 86.

Animal-sacrifice, repugnant to
Brahmanism, 19, 44, 53 ;
common among lower classes,
18, 43, 45, 48 ff., 67, 69, 89,

91, 92 ff.; offered by Brah-
mans, 57; buffaloes, see
Buffalo ; cows and calves,
106 ; fowls, 18, 45, 53, 55, 58
67, 69, 70, 75, 76, 77, 92, 94,
99, 101, 106 ; goats and kids,
18, 45, 53, 69, 70, 72, 75,

92, 94, 99, 103, 106; par
rots, 106 ; pigeons, 106 ; pigs,
18, 58, 67, 94, 99, 101, 102;
sheep and lambs, 18, 45, 50,
53, 55, 58, 70, 73, 75, 76, 77,
92, 94, 99, 101, 106; sheep
bitten to death in sacrifice by
a priest, 100 ; bodies buried,
104, 107, 108 ; victims killed
before the image, 49, 50, 53,
55, 56, 57, 69, 73, 78 ; heads
placed before image, 53, 57,
66, 93; heads and bodies eaten
by priests, 55, 58, 106, 107; by
people, 58, 74, 94. 106, 107 ;
flesh cooked, made into curry
and offered, 101-2 ; the shiver
ing test, 55, 63, 68, 69, 73,
99.

Animals impaled, 58, 59, 65, 69.
Animism, 12.
Aratl, 39,43, 77, 133, 150.
Areca-palm, 34, 39 n. 3.
Arrack, 49, 90, 102.
Aryans, 11, 16.

Asadis, 44, 50, 53, 54, 71, 72, 74.

119, 127.

Ashes, ^sacred, 132, 135.
Ashta £akti, 30.
Atonement, 88.
Avatara, 21, 30.

DADAGAS, 124, 125.

u Bali, 82.

Bali-haranam, 63.

Barbers as sacred musicians,

56.

Basava, 125 n. 1.
Basavis, 45, 142.
Bathing, ceremonial, 101 ; of

images, 54, 57, 77, 89, 90, 92,

98, 100, 102, 108.
Battaks of Sumatra, 144 f.
Betel, 39, 72, 83, 91, 133.
Blood of sacrifice, 18, 50, 51,

52, 55, 56, 62, 64, 65, 66, 67,

69, 70,73,75,78,80,89, 92,93,
94, 99, 102, 103 ; placed in
earthen vessel near the image
in the shrine, 62, 93, 94 ; cov
ered up with soil, 50, 56, 66 ;
shed on grain, 65 ; shed on
rice, 50, 52, 53, 56, 62, 65, 69,

70, 73, 79, 80, 93, 101, 108,
109; dashed on boundary
stones, 103, 104 ; sprinkled on
the image, 49, 85 ; on a stone,
87, 88; in the enclosure of the
shrine, 99; round boundaries
of village, 69, 73, 79, 97 ; in
the streets, 66, 93, 97,108; on
the ground, 70, 79, 106; over
the fields, 70; on cattle, 53,
70 ; on a swing-car, 83 ; on a
new building, 85 ; on the
head, 65; poured on tools, 86;

GENERAL INDEX

171

smeared on door-posts, 65 ;
applied to the forehead, 64,
65 ; drunk by gods, 94, 103 ;
by evil spirits, 103; by
priests, 99; sucked by priests,
99; cloths dipped in the blood
hung up as charm against
cattle disease, 109.

Blood-relationship, 146.

Boddu-rayee, 60.

Booth erected for worship, 36,
37, 49, 55, 72, 100.

Boundary-god, 36.

Boundary-goddess, 32.

Boundary -spirits, 103, 104.

Boundary-stone, 33, 35, 101,
102, 103.

Boyas, 72.

Brahma, 132, 133.

Brahmanical influence in village
worship, 12, 16, 30, 31, 37,
3_9 n. 3, 44.

Brahmanical temples, 16.

Brahmans, 12, 13, 19, 20, 43, 53,
68 ; officiating in village
shrine, 19, 106.

Brass pots as divfne symbols,
98.

Buddhism, 12.

Buffalo,, husband of the village
goddess, 73 ; dedicated buffa
loes allowed to roam free,
107.

Buffalo-sacrifice, 18, 44,
48, 52, 56, 57, 62, 64, 66, 69,
70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 78, 83, 85,
89, 93, 104, 106, 108, 117;
Outcastes take important
part in, 20, 48, 49, 50, 53, 54,
55, 56, 57, 58, 62, 63, 64, 66,
67, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74, 78, 94 ;
ritual of the head and foreleg,
51, 54, 56, 62, 67, 69, 70, 73,
78, 85, 118 ; head offered to
the image, 57; head, or body,
or both eaten by Outcastes,
53, 75, 78 ; head carried in
procession, 69, 70, 74; entrails
carried in procession, 52, 73,
108 ; cooked with rice and

offered to the image, 109 ;
put in pit with blood, 73 ;
liver carried by priest in his
mouth in procession, 52, 109.
Buttermilk, 55, 62, 65.

pAKES in worship, 57, 92.

^ Camphor burnt in sacri
fice, 45, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 77,
92, 93, 99, 100, 105, 106, 107.

Car used for images in proces
sions, 93, 102, 105.

Cart in worship, 53, 58, 65, 71,

Caste, 12, 18.

Cattle stone, 42.

Chakras, 81, 82,83.

Chandala, 84.

Cheroots, 18.

Children buried up to the neck
and trampled to death, 59,
60 f.

Cholam, 50, 52.

Cholera, 22, 23, 25, 28, 44, 46,
66, 73.

Cobra, worshipped, 22.

Cocoanuts in worship, 52, 53,
68,73, 74,77,88, 92, 98, 100,
106, 107.

Cradle in worship, 72.

Curds as offering, 77.

Curry in sacrifice, 65, 101 ;
given to the people, 101.

Curses, 85, 87.

P)ANCING, 40, 64, 72, 74, 87,
*-^ 98 ; sword and spear

dance, 98.
Debts, method of recovery,

110.
Deification from sudden or

violent death, 112 ff.
Demons, see Evil spirits.
Devara kona, 78.
Devara Potu, 56, 62.
Dola-jatra, 59 n. 1.
Dravidians, 11, 12, 14.
Dreams sent as punishment,

110.
Dubakaya, 67.

172

GENERAL INDEX

CLLAI-KAL, 28, 101, 103, 149.
*-• Ellai-karuppa, 33, 101.
Evil eye, the, 53.
Evil spirits, 33, 42, 46, 47, 53, i

56, 62, 63, 66, 67, 85, 94, 100, I

101, 103.

CAT of sacrificed buffalo
spread over its eyes and
nose, 51, 54, 56, 62, 67, 69,
70, 73, 78, 85, 118.

Festivals, 45.

Fever, 46.

Fire-walking, 79, 93.

Fireworks in procession 92,
105.

Flowers in offerings, 37, 40, 45,
68, 72, 76, 77, 92, 93, 99, 100,
105 ; used to garland victims,
56, 92, 98 ; to garland im
ages, 98.

Foundation-sacrifice, 54, 60, 85.

Founding of a village, 60.

Fruit in worship, 42, 57, 64, 68,
72, 73, 76, 77, 78,92, 100, 102,
106, 107.

pADDIGE, 81,82.

^ Ganja, 90.

Gauda-kona, 73.

Gingelly oil in sacrifice, 66, 90.

Gira, 72.

Goddesses, 17.

Gods, male, 17.

Grain in sacrifices, 64, 65.

Gram in sacrifice, 65.

Grama-devata, 16 ff.

LJEADS of sacrificial victims,
placed on boundary-stone,
103 ; placed before image,
51, 57, 62, 63, 67, 81 ;
piled in a high heap, 66 ; of
buffalo elaborately treated,
51,54, 56, 62, 67, 69, 70, 73,
78, 85, 118 ; eaten, 54, 55,74,
84, 91 ; thrown in the land of
the next village, 67 ; carried
round the village as a
protective, 62, 63, 67, 69.

Hinduism, 12.
Hindu sects, 12.
Hook-swinging, 59, 82, 83.
Human sacrifice, 82, 86, 88.

IMAGE, 21, 35 ff., 48, 54,

1 56, 65, 68 ; garlanded, 99 ;
clothed, 99 ; marked with
sandal-wood paste, 99 ; bath
ing of, 54, 57, 71, 77, 89, 90, 92,
98, 100, 102, 108; sailing on
a raft, 91 ; transferred to
alien land, 54 ; special image
made for festival, 48, 55, 68,
72, 77.

Impalement of animals, 58, 65,
69 ; forbidden, 58.

Inams, 63.

Incense, 45, 54, 57, 68, 70, 74,
76, 77, 91, 92, 98, 100, 105.

Infanticide, 59.

Inspiration, 52, 95.

Intestines of victim hung round
the neck, 52, 137, 148.

TAINISM, 12.
J Jevons, 146.

, 17.

w Kallar caste, 107.
Kama, 133 n. 3.
Kamakshi, 31 n.
Kamma, 131.
Kanimars, 98.
Kaniyas, 87.
Kappukaran, 102, 103.
Kapu, 100, 103, 104, 106, 108.
Karagam, 37, 38, 55, 100, 101,

102.

Kelammana Habba, 80, 83.
Kitchadi, 81.
Krita yuga, 132.
Kshatriya, 19.
Kunkuma, 37, 50, 55, 56, 57, 62,

72, 83, 90.

Kunna-kannadi, 29, 81.
Karnam, 44.

I AKSHMI, 133

J— A T o mV\o rli c '

Larabadis, 59.

GENERAL INDEX

173

Lamp in sacrifice, 37, 39, 49,
52, 55, 62, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73,
74, 75, 79, 81. 82, 88.

Leg of sacrificed buffalo put in
the mouth, 39, 51, 54, 56, 62,
67, 69, 70, 73, 78, 85, 118 ; so
with sheep or goats, 98.

Lights in worship, 105.

Limes used in worship, 49, 92,
98, 106.

Linga, 72 n. 1, 132 n. 2, 142.

Linga-nama-Sivaya, 132, 135.

Lingayat, 72, 131, 132 n. 2,
134.

Liver of sacrificial victim taken
in the mouth, 52, 109, 148.

Looking-glass, 29, 81.

JV/IADIGAS, 28, 44, 49, 53, 54,

m 56, 57, 62, 63, 64, 66, 69,
70, 73; Madigapujari stripped
naked, 73.

Malas, 44, 49, 52, 53, 57, 62,
150.

Mamul, 39.

Mandn, 88.

Mango leaves in worship, 37.

Mantram, 92, 102.

Maranadi bali, 88.

Margosa, 37, 48, 56, 57, 64, 65,
67,76,83.

Mari Made, 80, 81.

Mari Saru, 80.

Mari Sidi, 80, 82.

Measles, 23, 74.

Metal images for use in pro
cessions,' 37, 91, 92, 93, 98,
102, 103, 105, 107.

Milk in worship, 92, 98.

Mmakshi, 112 n.

Mlecchas, 19.

Munsiff, 57.

Mythology, 112 ff.

MAKEDNESS, 75.

x> Namaskaram, 66, 70.

Nautch-girls, 21, 39 n. 4, 68.

Navel-stone, 41.

Nuts, 72.

QFFERINGS, see Animal-

^ sacrifice, Arrack, Blood,
Buttermilk, Cakes, Camphor,
Cheroots, Cocoanuts, Curry,
Fat, Flowers, Fruit, Gingelly
oil, Grain, Gram, Head,
Human sacrifice, Incense,
Kitchadi, Kunkuma, Lamp,
Leg, Limes, Liver, Margosa,
Milk, Oil, Plantains, Rice,
Sandal-wood, Sugar, Toddy,
Turmeric, Water.

Oil in worship, 36, 92 ; used to
anoint divine stones, 98.

Omens, 55, 63, 68, 69, 73, 75
106, 109. See Shivering test.

Opium, 90.

Outcastes, 19, 75 ; officiate as
ministrants in village wor
ship, 20, 28, 44, 49, 52, 53, 54,
56, 57, 62, 63, 64, 66, 69, 70
73, 78, 150.

PADAYACHI Caste, 27, 28,
93.

Pambalas, 58, 67.
Panchamas, 19.
Pandavas, 31.
Panikas,86.
ParameSvara, 132.
ParvatI, 122, 123, 132.
Pariahs, 33, 97, 98, 99, 117.
Pedda-veta, 70.
Philosophies of India, 12.
Pial, 81.
Pigs buried alive, 60; buried

up to the neck and trampled

to death, 53, 59.
Pins fastened through the

cheeks, 29, 76, 78.
Plantains as an offering, 72,

106.

Possession, 100, 101, 104, 108.
Plague, 71.
Pots as divine symbols, 37, 38,

55,64,98,100, 101,102.
Praise, 53,54, 56,67.
Prasada, 64 n. 1.
Processional images, 37, 91, 92,

93, 98, 102, 103', 105, 107.

174

GENERAL INDEX

Processions, 21, 38, 49, 50, 52,
53, 54, 56, 58, 62, 65, 66, 67,
70, 72, 74. 81, 83, 91, 92, 96,
100, 101, 102, 103, 106.

Progress of image on a raft, 91.

Propitiation, 46, 47, 48, 66, 68,
85, 87, 88, 99, 100, 101, 103.

Pujarls, i.e. ministrants, o f

Brahmanical temples, 18, 19,

,43 ; of village temples, 43 ff.;

of all castes except Brahmans,

18 f., 43.

Puthrayagam, 31.

DAKSHATHAS, 122.
^ Reddy, 50, 71, 72.

Rice in sacrifice, 49, 50, 51, 52,
53,55,56,57,58,59,62, 64,65,
66, 69, 70, 73, 74, 77, 79, 80,
81, 88, 90, 92, 93, 100, 101, 102,
103, 106, 108, 109; mixed with
buttermilk, 62, 65 ; soaked
with blood, 50, 52, 53, 56, 62,
65, 69, 70, 73, 79, 80, 93, 101,
108, 109 ; blood-soaked rice
sprinkled as a protective, 53,
56, 66, 69, 70, 73, 79, 81, 93,
94, 99, 109 ; eaten by evil
spirits, 94 ; eaten by gods,
94, 108 ; by pujari, 55 ; by
people, 109 ; dashed against
stones as a propitiation, 101,
103.

Rigveda, 12.

Rosewater in worship, 92.

Ryots, 52.

CACRED ashes, 132.

° S*akta, 29 n. 2.

Sakti, 29, 30, 86, 130.

Sandal- wood paste, 91, 92, 98.

Sastras, 84.

Savighai, 118.

Seven sisters in Mysore, 29, 32 ;
seven virgins of Tamil coun
try, 32, 39.

Shashthangam, 74.

Shivering test, 55, 63, 68, 69,
73,99.

Shrines, 16, 35 ff., 74, 98,99.
Sickness sent as punishment,

102.

Siddhalu,52.
Sin-offering, 85.
S"iva, 16, 17, 132, 133, 134, 135,

136, 137 ; his third eye, 133

n. 3.
Small-pox, 17, 29, 31, 32, 42, 46,

74.

Snake-worship, 75, 82.
Substitution, 60, 67, 76, 86, 87.
vSudras, 19, 28, 43, 131 ; as

pujans, 54, 105, 108.
Sugar in worship, 92.
S"ularn, 40.

Sun-worship, 29, 39, 76.
Swing-festival , 59, 61 , 76, 82, 83.
Symbols, 16, 34, 36 ff., 54, 64,

68, 79, 98, 100.

""TABU, on marriage through
an unfinished sacrifice,

104 ; preventing a priest from

leaving a temple, 104.
Tahsildar, 57.
Tali, 27, 132.
Taliaris, 72.
Tamarind, 34.
Tapas, 84.
Thank-offering, 85.
Todas, 61.
Toddy, 18, 143.
Tom-toms, 37, 48, 64, 67, 78, 79,

88, 92, 105.

Torches in processions, 92, 105.
Totemism, 145 ff.
Toti, 78.
Transference of divine wrath to

next village, 24, 54, 58, 67, 88.
Transmigration, 12.
Trimurti, 24.
Turmeric, 48, 54, 56, 57, 62, 64,

68, 72, 77, 83, 90, 92, 93, 101 ;

used to mark the forehead,

64.

T TDAYA caste, 104.

w Umbellayar caste, 106.

GENERAL INDEX

\/AHANAM (an animal on
v which a god rides), 90, 102,
103, 105, 107.

VaiSya, 19.

Velama. 134.

Vellala,99.

Vetty, 56, 64.

Village gods, 11, 16 ; festivals,
45 ff. ; take the substance of j
food offered them, 52; delight
in blood, 51 ; in animal-sacri
fice, Chaps. III-VI ; names,
23 ff . ; character, 30 f . ; func
tions, 31 ff. ; relation to
disease and calamity, 16, 17,
23 ff., 31 ff., 42, 45 ff., 65, 71,
85, 88; mostly female, 17, 32 ;
male attendants, 18, 33; males
independent, 18, 33, 34, 89;
shrines, 35 f. ; symbols, 36 ff.,
48, 54 ; growth of cult, 20 ff.;

ministrants, 18, 43 ff. ; sym
bolize village life, 17 ; wor
shipped by 80 per cent, of the
people of the South, 139 ;
origin of the system, 16 ff. ;
Chap. VIII ; value of the
system, Chap. IX.

Virans, 33.

Vishnu, 13, 16, 17.

Vows, 55, 92, 93, 107.

VY/ARNECK, 145.
** Water, poured over vie
tim, 92, 93 ; used to cause
victims to shiver, 55, 63, 68,
69, 73, 99 ; used in bathing
images, 99 ; sprinkled on
offerings, 102

, 57.

PRINTED AT THE WESLEYAN MISSION PRESS,
MYSORE CITY.

BL
1216

1921

WHITEHEAD

THE VILLAGE GODS
OF SOUTH INDIA

121725